Until I Collapse
by LizzieLinn
Summary: Leah Shields had gotten used to taking care of herself, then all hell broke loose. Living life in an apocalypse, she found friends she never would have known, family in a dysfunctional group of survivors, safe havens in the most unlikely places, and love from the last person she expected. This life pushed her past her limits, but she would fight for it until she collapsed.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This is my first time ever writing a fanfiction! Any suggestions on how to better improve my writing is much appreciated and I hope you all enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead or it's characters, just my OC**

Until I Collapse

Chapter 1 – Walk Forever By My Side

It had been a week since the news reported a few cases of cannibalistic behavior; neighbors eating neighbors and husband eating wife were some of the more gruesome ones she heard. And as the updates continued and worsened, Leah contacted her parents in Florida and told them to pack up the car with essentials and meet her in Atlanta. She had lived in Greensboro for the past 4 years and figured they should meet halfway and reunite in the refugee camp. Night had fallen and Leah had been driving for over 6 hours with nothing but her German Shepherd Prince and the Emergency Broadcast System to keep her company. And soon it was just Princes panting that filled the front seats of her SUV as the radio signals died. She was on a little two lane highway when traffic came to a complete stand-still. There were red lights as far as she could see and she decided it was hopeless to try and weave through it. Twenty minutes later she had decided to stretch her legs and figure out what the hell was going on.

She stuck her handgun in the back of her jeans as she hopped out of her SUV. She was walking for a couple of minutes before she came across a bear of a man with a police hat on; she figured since he was an authority figure that he may know what was happening.

"Hi, I'm Leah Shields," she shook his hand.

"Shane Walsh, and this is Lori Grimes and her son Carl," he motioned to a pretty brunette woman and a little boy who she guessed was around 11 years old.

"Ouch! That's quite a grip you have there, Carl. I think you nearly broke my hand," they all laughed she pretended to massage her right hand. Leah was happy she could bring a smile to someone's face during a time like this.

She looked back to Shane. "Well it's certainly nice to meet all of you. Do you have any idea what the hold-up is?"

"No, I don't think anybody has the first clue. The radio broadcasts stopped quite a while ago," he said solemnly.

Disappointed in his lack of information, "Yeah, well I'm going to head up the road a ways and see if anyone has any news. I'll report back here if I get any information."

"Much appreciated. Thank you." Shane said with a parting glance.

Leah began to walk back towards where her car was parked when she saw B-52s flying overhead. Curiosity got the best of her she went further into the tree line to get a better view of the city. When she saw the planes flying over Atlanta and dropping A-bombs in the streets she stood frozen in shock, as did everyone else that came to investigate. She could feel Prince's nose against her palm, sensing her dread and trying to comfort her. She scratched the top of his head in praise as she saw his big eyes staring at her in concern; he was the sweetest dog she could ever ask for. But her eyes drifted back to the scene in front of her. High-rises were engulfed in flames and she could smell the smoke in the air. What if her parents had already made it to Atlanta? There was no way they would survive that. If they did, how would they ever find each other? Leah could feel the tears about to spill over when she was pulled out of her trance by a very grim looking Shane. By the tone in his voice and the look on his face, she could tell that he had lost someone in Atlanta as well.

"A group of us are going to make camp nearby in a quarry. As soon as this thing blows over, the government will be able to find us easily there."

Still filled with concern, Leah's spirits were lifted slightly at the idea of having people watch her back and her watching theirs as this world sorted itself out.

"Great," she said "let me get my supplies."

When she emerged from the wooded area, she was within a couple of car lengths of her Land Rover when she passed an old blue pick-up with two men sitting it. The driver of the car called out to her asking if there was any plan. At first she was hesitant in relaying that information, the passenger didn't look to be in his right state of mind, but she figured there was power in numbers.

As she walked to the driver's side of the vehicle her heart skipped a beat when her mint green eyes met a pair of stormy blue ones.

"A- a group of people are going to set up camp in that nearby rock quarry. My name's Leah by the way, and yours?" she asked as she was staring into the man's mesmerizing eyes; she felt like a school girl talking to her crush.

"Daryl Dixon, an' this is my older brother Merle," he said with a Southern drawl.

"Hey there sugar tits," the man named Merle growled "I don't think that I've ever seen a sweeter piece of ass in my life," a devilish gleam in his gray eyes. Leah grimaced at his "pick-up line" if you could even call it that. She noticed that his eyes were glazed over and he had Bugles in his hands. Leah had a sudden flashback of all her friends from college as they fought off the midnight munchies. She fought off sadness at the thought that that world didn't exist anymore.

"Come on man, just leave the poor girl alone." Daryl rolled his eyes at his brother, annoyance written all over his face. Leah could already tell that Daryl was the better man of the two, she had always been very observant of people.

"Tell you what Deliverance, if you ever make a comment on my ass again, or any other part of my body for that matter, Prince here will bite yours." Prince put his front paws on the window sill effectively showing off his stature and teeth as he barked at the two men. Leah didn't fail to notice the timid expression that now occupied Merle's face, and apparently neither did Daryl as he chuckled silently to himself. She could only imagine what Prince looked like to Merle if he was as high as he looked.

"Good boy Prince! Well, you guys can follow me to the quarry, it's only a couple of miles up the road."

…

She was pulling her car into to quarry when she saw an RV and other various cars pull in as well. By the looks of it there seemed to be over 20 people in camp and the more the merrier in her book.

Shane was the first to speak once everyone came out of their vehicles. "Hey everybody, I know it has been a long day and we're all tired, but we need to push a little longer before we rest. I only think it's fair that we ration out what supplies we have to divide it evenly." That last statement got a few objections among the group, mostly from Merle and a big man named Ed.

Shane quickly regained control of the conversation by using a very stern yet level voice. Leah had a feeling he used that voice a lot while being a police officer.

"The key to surviving this, is surviving it together, as a group. If we're gonna beat this, we have to put our lives in each other's hands. Alright, now everyone bring what you have to the center here and we can ration out our dinner."

Everyone started heading off into the directions of their cars and began to unload all of their belongings. Leah had a couple of boxes full of dried meat and fruit, about six gallons of extra gas, various canned foods, and a case of water loaded up in her car, along with her bow and arrows and two handguns. She brought the food to the center of camp and got a few curious glances at how well stocked she was. In her mind she should be getting thanks from everyone at how well prepared she was, with all of her supplies she could survive on her own for a month. A man named Ed was less than pleased to give up his share to complete strangers, but it was pointed out by Shane and the rest of the group that it was necessary for enduring this hell.

…

There was a significant stock pile of food once everyone gave their share, it would probably last the entire group a couple of weeks. Daryl mentioned his hunting and tracking skills, the group gave him their thanks; they knew they wouldn't survive forever on beans and jerky.

Daryl sat next to Leah on a couple of tree stumps as they ate their canned vegetables, Prince laying at their feet. Aside from Shane, Leah realized she only knew Daryl and Merle, but formalities would have to wait until tomorrow when they weren't so vulnerable.

People were exchanging ideas about how to best set up camp in the morning when all of a sudden a twig snapped in the forest, immediately sending everyone into fight-or-flight mode as they grabbed their nearby weapons. A couple of moments passed before Daryl broke the silence by saying it was a Chupacabra. Everyone exchanged a few curious glances in his direction, begging him to enlighten them.

"I was out camping one weekend and I came across some dear tracks along a creek. I was following them for a couple of miles when I saw a bear-sized dog drinking from the stream about one hundred yards away. Then the deer I was tracking came out form the cover of the trees into the path of the Chupacbra, and before I knew it the dog was sucking all of the deer's blood out of its body. It was just outta range of my arrows and I wasn't about to sneak up on it so I backed off as quietly as I could before it decided it wanted a snack. It scared the living hell outta me."

The group burst out in laughter at the pure ridiculousness of his story, even Leah let out a chuckle which earned a glare from Daryl.

"I'm not saying I don't believe you Daryl, I'll just have to see it for myself," Leah smirked as she nudged his leg with hers.

"Fine! Laugh at me but you just wait until a Chupacabra comes and eats you in your sleep." With that being said, Daryl threw his plate into the fire and stalked off to go make his tent; a few members of the group still suppressing giggles.

The conversation dwindled down to silence as everyone finished their canned vegetables and jerky; everyone was emotionally and physically drained from the day's activities.

The rest of the night was spent with everyone setting up their tents; Leah was glad she had gotten one for her road trip to California a few years back. She let her mind wander as she went through the motions of setting up her two-person tent. Her mind, of course, wandered to her parents, she just prayed that they were somewhere safe or found a camp like hers. She pushed the ugly alternative out of her brain before she let it completely engulf her in fear.

After Leah set up her tent, she busied herself with organizing her personal belongings within, setting up Princes bed and bowls first. She patted herself on the back for remembering his dog food, she wasn't sure how well he would take to peas and corn. She pulled out her two handguns and ammo from her duffel bag and set them near her pillow as a precaution; both of her guns were fully loaded and she had about 100 rounds of ammo. She inspected her arrow and it looked to be in good condition, and so did her 20 or so arrows she had brought although they needed to be cleaned. The second-to-last item in her bag was a picture of her and her parents before her senior prom, her eyes started to swell up with tears as memories flooded her mind. She remembered how she had spent the entire day with her mom getting ready, applying various makeup and hair sprays until they were both satisfied with the outcome. Leah blinked back the tears as she placed the picture underneath her pillow. She knew her parents would want her to be tough, hell, she had to be tough in this world…there was no room for anything else.

She decided now was a good a time as any to use her final possession. She was so glad that she had thought to bring her iPod with her, she knew the battery wouldn't last forever but music had always been therapeutic to her. She turned the device on and scrolled through the playlist until her eyes settled on one particular song. "Walk Forever By My Side" had been her parents wedding song and she always felt that it symbolized their love perfectly, and she needed them with her in that moment. She needed their reassurance that everything was going to be okay.

_Walk forever by my side_

_Never lose sight of the day_

_When we will run through all our weakness_

_On through the fields_

_Strewn with our broken dreams_

_Walk forever by my side_

As the final notes of the song drifted off, she turned off her iPod wanting to conserve the battery for as long as possible. She put everything away and turned in for the night, according to her watch it was close to one o'clock in the morning and it had been a long day to say the least. When she lay her head on her pillow she suddenly realized how tired she really was and closed her eyes with the echoes of the song and Prince's light snores lulling her to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Until I Collapse

**A/N: I am so happy with the response my first chapter got! It is very encouraging for me to continue writing and I hope to see more feedback, it is always appreciated **

**Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own The Walking Dead; if I did I would be in Georgia fan-girling over Norman Reedus ;)**

**Anyways, here is the next chapter…**

Chapter 2 – Wouldn't It Be Nice

Leah woke up to the sound of Prince breathing right near her ear, his eyes trained on her as she slowly came to. Prince had been doing this since he was a puppy, and Leah knew it only meant one thing… he was hungry. She thought he had turned into a statue with how perfectly still he was being; as entertaining as it was to watch him make a puppy face, she decided that enough was enough and gave him some food and water.

Looking at her watch she saw that it was a little past 6:30 in the morning and it sounded like the rest of camp hadn't gotten up; she didn't blame them, after the past few days everyone has had, a little sleep is what they all needed. She got dressed in a fresh pair of black skinny jeans and an AC/DC concert tee she had gotten a couple of years earlier. She was thinking back to that amazing concert as she zipped up her knee high boots, the crowd had been going absolutely insane as the band played "Hells Bells," and soon enough everyone was singing along. That had easily been one of the most fun nights of her life, she smiled at the memory as she stepped out of her tent into the early morning light. She pulled her raven hair into a high ponytail as she looked around the camp to see who else was up, by the looks of it very few, and then someone called out to her.

"Good morning," an older man exclaimed. Leah wasn't quite sure what his name was, but he talked briefly and he seemed like a very wise, trustworthy person.

"Good morning!"

"Care to join me up here? There is quite a view of the quarry," he asked.

"Sure, I could use some peace and quiet before everybody gets up."

Leah climbed the ladder of the RV and saw that the man had two lawn chairs set up on the roof, probably for the various people that would be keeping watch throughout the day.

"I don't think we were formally introduced, I'm Leah Shields," Leah shook his hand as she took a seat next to the gray-haired man.

"A pleasure Leah. Dale Horvath, it is certainly nice to meet you. So what did you do before all of this?" Dale asked.

Leah looked at her hands folded in her lap, while she contemplated how to best answer him.

"Ironically enough, I was a grief counselor with my own private practice."

"Wow that is quite an accomplishment! I imagine that line of work can be tough sometimes."

"It was, there would be days that were so hard that I couldn't help but cry when I got home. Some of my patient's stories were so devastating that it just got to me more than it should have. I knew that would come with the territory of having that type of occupation, but they don't prepare you for what you might hear in graduate school. In the end though, it was worth it because I knew I was helping people feel better."

"It sounds like that's exactly what you did."

"I like to think so, what did you do before all of this." Leah mused.

"I was retired and traveling the country with my wife Irma, she died of cancer a couple of years ago."

"I'm sorry Dale, if you ever want to talk, just let me know."

"I will, Leah. Thank you."

"No problem, my door is always open."

Leah saw some people emerging from their tents. "Well it looks like some more people are starting to get up. Do you suppose we should help ration out the food?"

"It's not going to ration out itself, and I don't want anyone taking more than their fair share," Dale pointed out.

With that, they both climbed down from the RV and joined Daryl, Lori, and Shane near the pile of food. Leah stood next to Daryl as Shane organized the stock.

"The kids automatically get more food. I think everyone can agree on that," Shane stated. They all nodded their heads in agreement.

"I think one can of food at each meal and a piece of jerky should be enough to start off with," Leah added. "We need to make sure that we are all getting balanced meals, the last think we need is someone being deficient in something."

Shane continued, "I agree, we balance out fruits, vegetables, and protein. Dairy obviously isn't an option, but from the looks of it we have about 7 cases of water, each with about 24 bottles in them. It is about the end of summer so well need to stay hydrated, we don't have the medical supplies to deal with dehydration. We can use the water from the quarry when we run out of bottled water."

"Sounds like a plan to me. Should we start dividing the different canned goods?" Dale asked.

"Yeah, after that we can have some breakfast and have everybody formally introduce themselves," Lori said.

…

Leah was having hard time remembering everyone's names but she could recall that Amy and Andrea were sisters (it wasn't very hard to tell that they were related). Merle had emerged from his tent, still glazed over from whatever mixture of drugs he was on; she tried to avoid him at all costs, but he still managed to make a snide remark, earning him a growl from Prince and a glare from her and Daryl. Leah also met Morales and his family. The camp had 4 kids total, she can only imagine what this experience was doing to them. Sophia was the sweetest little girl she had ever met and her mother was also very kind, offering to do laundry when the time came. But her husband struck a nerve with Leah, she didn't like the way he carried himself, and she certainly didn't like the aggressive ways he would shove and push Sophia and Carol. Leah could guess what was happening to them once they went back to their tent. Leah made a mental note to tell Shane if she saw any harm come to them; she was sure that he had handled domestic violence in his profession and would handle it if necessary. She was also sure she wasn't the only one that saw it either, she knew a woman named Jacqui gave them

…

It was late afternoon and everyone had begun to set up a more permanent looking camp; they had started to set up cloths-lines and collected barrels to wash dishes and clothes in. A couple of people had coolers that could be used to store water and the canned food. They decided to rig the camp with an alarm of sorts made of empty cans in case anything stumbled across their path; they also set up 8 hour guard shifts on top of Dale's RV. That's when Shane called anyone who was armed forward to assess their abilities and prior training. Leah stepped forward with one of her handguns and volunteered to shoot first.

She grabbed one of Merle's empty beer bottles from the prior night and walked over to the cliff. She threw the bottle into the air, aimed, and pulled the trigger shattering the bottle as it fell to the bottom of the quarry.

Everyone looked at her is shock, including Daryl and Merle.

"My father insisted that if I lived on my own that I would be able to defend myself," Leah explained to the silent crowd.

Shane whistled his amazement as he called Daryl and Merle forward. The two men repeated what Leah had done with some leftover cans from that morning, both hitting the target with deadly accuracy, not to anyone's surprise though; they both had mentioned that they spent their whole life hunting. Dale, a man named Jim, and Ed showed similar skill with their weapons as they took their turns.

…

After everyone got done with their gun assessments, Leah saw Daryl cleaning his arrows and figured now was as good a time as any to ask him to teach her how to shoot hers.

"Hi," Leah approached cautiously.

"What do you want?" Daryl questioned.

"I have a bow and arrows of my own, but I only had one lesson before all this happened, and I was wondering if you could show me how to shoot?"

Daryl pondered over Leah's request while cleaning his last arrow.

"I guess… I could always use more help once I start huntin'…"

Leah looked at him in utter shock, her mouth slightly agape, she thought for sure that he would tell her to piss off or something.

"What are you looking at?" Daryl snapped.

"Nothing, I just wasn't expecting you to say yes," Leah snapping back to reality.

" 'S no problem, and Lord knows I can only hang around these people for so long 'fore I go insane."

Leah smirked at that last part, she knew that living in these tight quarters would definitely cause friction sooner or later.

"Great, start tomorrow morning?"

"Like hell, it was your idea! So let's get a move on," Daryl ordered.

Leah scurried to her tent as she grabbed her bow and quiver, she felt like she was a little kid being told to clean up her room.

…

"Okay, take your stance," Daryl said.

Leah took her stance with her left foot forward and shoulder-width apart, her hand touching her mouth, and her knees slightly bent as she did so.

"Looks good, lower your elbow a little bit though."

Daryl placed his hand on Leah's elbow, gently pushing it a couple of inches downward.

Leah blushed slightly under the contact of his strong hand on her skin, she was just glad she could blame the heat for the color in her cheeks.

Daryl cleared his throat, "Okay, now inhale while you pull back. An' exhale as you release."

Leah did as she was told and found her mark on a tree about 20 yards away. She smiled widely as she walked towards the tree and saw it was about an 8 point shot.

"Wow! That felt amazing!" Leah exclaimed.

"Ya were already a great shot, you just had to adjust from a gun to an arrow," Daryl explained

"Well, you're a good teacher. How did you get into this anyway?" Leah questioned as she pulled the arrow out of the tree.

"Been doin' it since I could hold a bow."

Leah knew that was about all she would get out of Daryl and decided not to press the issue.

…

They continued target practice until there was barely any light left in the forest.

"Wanna head back? Dinner should be getting started soon…" Leah said.

"Yeah, I'm starving anyway."

Dinner was filled with comfortable chit chat as they all exchanged funny stories from their previous lives. She had to admit that the guy named Glenn had some doozies about his days as a pizza delivery guy; he told this one that had to do with a naked man wearing a horse mask answering the door and paying him with monopoly money. He didn't go into much further detail because of all the kids that we present, but all of the adults could only guess what was happening in that house.

The conversation was dying down as people finished their canned food; Leah was sitting next to Dale and whispered something that had been on her mind since the previous night. She could tell Dale was a wise man and already found herself growing fond of him; he had a steady head on his shoulders, much like she did and she figured he was the best person to approach on this subject.

"Dale?"

"Yeah, Leah?"

"Remember how I told you what I did before all of this?"

Dale nodded his head in understanding.

"Well, I was wondering if I should mention it to everyone. I mean before all of this happened, my clients would always come to me, I wouldn't try to help them unless they wanted it."

"Well, I can certainly understand where you're coming from, Leah. But, your previous clients knew you were there if they needed help, these folks don't. I think you should let them know that you're there if they need you to be."

"That's a good point. Thanks, Dale," Leah smiled.

Leah hit her fork against her can to get everyone's attention.

"Hi everyone! I just wanted to say that although I don't know most, if any of you, personally yet that my door is always open if any of you want to talk about anything that's on your mind. Uh, I used to be a grief counselor before this, and I know that we have all lost someone in one way or another. I will also keep whatever you tell me confidential unless you say otherwise. Anyways, I just wanted to let you all know that you have a shoulder to lean on if need be."

"Thank you, Leah. I'm sure I speak for the whole group when I say that we appreciate you sayin' that," Shane said.

"No problem," Leah added.

Leah decided that the silence following her little announcement was too awkward for her to keep sitting there. She decided to use that golden opportunity to take some dinner to Daryl, who was keeping watch until midnight.

Leah grabbed a can of baked beans and a couple of chunks of jerky to take to the quiet redneck. She climbed up the ladder of the RV to find Daryl smoking a cigarette and staring off into the woods.

"Got the special for you, straight off the grill," Leah joked. She was surprised to see that Daryl actually smirked at her attempt at humor. Daryl and Leah exchanged a few words as he ate his beans, both looking at the peaceful seen before them.

"This place really is beautiful. I've always loved how peaceful nature is, it lets you escape life, even if just for a little bit," Leah said while looking up at the stars.

"I know what you mean, hell I practically grew up in the woods, it was the only way to escape my dad when I was a kid."

Leah didn't know why Daryl was opening up to her like that, but when he didn't say anything further she decided that he would tell her more in time.

After a few more moments of comfortable silence, Leah decided to bow out gracefully and leave Daryl in peace. She already knew he was a man of few words, and she didn't mind. She always found that people who were quiet often were very smart, sensitive, and all around good.

"Here, I'll throw that away for you," Leah stood up.

"Thanks, 'night Leah," Daryl said looking up at her.

Leah smiled when he said her name, she liked the way it sounded. "Good night, Daryl. See you in the morning."

…

As Leah climbed into her tent with Prince on her heal, she pondered what she was feeling for Daryl. She didn't think that she would take a liking to the redneck so quickly, but she felt comfortable around him, being with him felt natural. She smiled at the innocence of it while she fed Prince.

She changed into an oversized shirt and shorts as she got ready for bed. She tossed and turned for a couple of hours with Daryl very present in her thoughts. She decided that she would end the day on a good note (no pun intended) and pulled out her iPod.

Her eyes scrolled over the screen as she found the song she was looking for. She had always liked this song and it always put her in a good mood whenever she listened to it.

_Wouldn't it be nice if we were older_

_Then we wouldn't have to wait so long_

_And wouldn't it be nice to live together_

_In the kind of world where we belong_

_You know it's gonna make it that much better_

_When we can say goodnight and stay together_

_Wouldn't it be nice if we could wake up_

_In the morning when the day is new_

_And after having spent the day together_

_Hold each other close the whole night through_

When the song ended, the quietness of the world around her began to make her sleepy. She turned off her iPod yet again, seeing that it had about 93% battery; she wondered how long she would have the little device with her before it eventually died. Leah's eyelids suddenly felt very heavy as she put the iPod underneath her pillow, sneaking a glance at her watch she read that it was past two in the morning. She silently questioned if she would ever get a good night's sleep in this world.

**Hi all! I'm sorry it took me so long to update. I think all of my professors got together and decided that this week was exam week. Anyway, let me know what you guys think of the story and where it's headed, all feedback is greatly appreciated and encouraged If this story keeps getting a positive response I hope to have an update in about a week… I hope you all have a Happy Valentine's Day 3**

**P.S. Let me know what you guys think of the concept of having song lyrics in each chapter **


	3. Chapter 3

Until I Collapse

**A/N: So sorry this took so long to update, it turned out to be a busy week (tests and whatnot). This is sort of a filler chapter so Leah can have moments with some more characters that are necessary for the second half of this chapter. Plus there are more adorable moments between Daryl and Leah :D Yay**

**Fair warning, there is some slight talk of abuse in this chapter and if that subject is sensitive to any of you, I would skip this section of the story.**

**Anyways… enjoy the next chapter **

Chapter 3 (Part I) – Daylight

The camp had been set up for about a week and everyone was settling into their daily chores. There was a 24-hour guard watch on top of Dale's RV, mostly men took the watch, but whenever Leah couldn't sleep, she relieved whoever's watch it was. So far the camp had been quiet, which everyone had been thankful for, although Leah silently wondered how long that would last.

Leah continued to take shooting lessons with Daryl, she was doing well enough that she could move onto moving targets, although she still had a long way to go with that; squirrels were a lot faster than they looked.

Leah had come to think of some of the members of their camp as family. Glenn, she took a quick liking to, he was always able to make everyone laugh, and that was a gift in today's world. Andrea and Amy she had grown close to, they reminded her of some of her old friends, even though they bickered like an old married couple. Carol and Jaqui felt like second mothers to Leah, they were always kind and Leah always felt comfortable around them.

Leah wasn't sure how the women immediately got saddled with laundry duty but she didn't mind the routine of it. She was helping Carol rinse out some shirts when she noticed a large, angry looking bruise on Carol's upper arm and an equally nasty bruise on the nape of her neck. Leah didn't mention anything with Ed watching them from a couple yards away, but she would sure as hell say something to Shane later. Leah shivered at the thought of what Sophia was going through, and if Leah could help it, she wouldn't go through it again.

…

The light of the fire was dying down when everyone lumbered off to bed, she waited until Shane took watch and everyone was in their tents before she went up to talk to Shane.

Leah felt her hands shaking as she climbed up the side of the RV, she wasn't sure how she should start this rather personal conversation with Shane, but something needed to be said.

"Shane?"

"Yeah, Leah. Is everything OK?" Shane asked.

"Everything's fine with me, but earlier today I was helping Carol do laundry and I um… noticed a huge bruise on her arm and another on her neck. I don't think she fell down the stairs if you know what I mean. And I was talking with some of the other women and they noticed as well, so we decided to tell you. I know you were a cop, so I figured you would be the best person to come to with this."

Shane stared at Leah as she relayed her suspicion to him.

"I appreciate you coming to me with this. There is no need for this to be public knowledge, and I had my suspicions like you, I just wanted hard evidence before approaching Carol about it."

"I didn't want to go to Carol directly either, I didn't want to start a scene or anything. I just didn't know what else to do."

"That's no problem, Leah. I'm glad you came to me when you did. I'll talk to Carol about it first thing tomorrow when she's alone."

"Thank you so much, Shane. It feels good to get that off my chest." Leah was relieved to have told Shane, although she didn't know how easily it would be resolved, if at all.

"That's okay. Have a good night now," Shane pattted Leah's knee as she stood up and left him to his watch.

Prince was sitting patiently at the foot of the ladder for Leah, his tail gently wagging as her feet hit the ground. They made their way over to her tent as the last embers of the fire floated into the night sky. Leah took a moment to look over the quarry, it was a crescent moon tonight, the stars shone brightly in the sky. They stood as an eternal reminder to Leah that beauty still existed in this world, it doesn't show all the time, but if you look for it, it's there.

Leah stopped just outside of her tent, she thought back to her road trip to California a couple of years back. She had gone with a couple of her college friends to see the Perseids meteor shower in the Mojave Desert. It had easily been one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen, there were hundreds of meteors shooting across the sky that night. She had never felt so peaceful, or so small in all her life. That was on her bucket list since she was 18, and it was the perfect night.

And in that moment, Leah felt peaceful. Probably the only time she would feel peaceful in the world she lived in now. With a contented sigh, Leah climbed into her tent for another night of limited sleep.

…

Leah woke up to a pair of large brown eyes staring at her. She smiled at the sight of Prince wagging his tail in hopes for breakfast, Leah rubbed his ears and got licked on the cheek by her companion.

"Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy, Prince?" He barked happily as she rubbed his ears.

She got dressed in a pair of distressed skinny jeans, a black tank top, and a pair of converse. She gave Prince a slightly larger breakfast this morning, he definitely deserved it after being so well behaved the past week.

As she stepped out of the tent about half of the camp was up and getting a head start on their chores for the day. She stuffed her gun into the back of her pants as she saw Daryl sitting around the fire pit. Leah had a little spring in her step as she approached the redneck still a little giddy from their "moment" earlier that week. Leah noticed that he had his signature frown plastered on his face as she sat down next to him.

"Morning sunshine," Leah chirped.

"Ha ha. Mornin' Leah,"

"Did you feel like going hunting for squirrel today?"

"If you're up for your ass being handed to you," Daryl teased.

"Is that a challenge, Dixon?"

"You tell me, Shields," he quipped.

"Okay, challenge accepted."

"You're on."

"Just promise not to cry too much when I win, we wouldn't want Merle to see you lose your manhood."

"Oh, he won't," Daryl chuckled.

"Speak of the devil… Morning, Merle."

"Morning, sugar tits. You two off to make love, sweet love again? I get to have her when you're done baby brother."

Leah had decided that she had had enough of Merle's comments and drew her gun from her belt, pointing it at his forehead.

"You wanna try that again, bumpkin?," Leah spit, "Call me that one more time, or even talk to me like that again and I'll keep good on my promise for Prince to bite your ass."

"Touchy, touchy. I don't know what you see in her Darlina." Merle sauntered away with Leah's gun still trained on the back of his head.

"Remind me not to get on your bad side. Damn."

"That, my friend, is a place you never want to find yourself," Leah joked.

…

True to his word, Daryl had gotten every single squirrel the pair came across while they were hunting, except for one, which Leah unpinned from the tree with great pride.

"In honor of his sacrifice, I shall name him …Acorn, King of the Trees."

Both Daryl and Leah broke out in a fit of laughter as Leah looped the squirrel onto the string they kept the others on.

Leah had to admit that it was nice to be alone with Daryl, away from Merle and the others. In the woods, there wasn't an apocalypse, it was just two friends hanging out.

Leah saw that Daryl was lining up another shot, and Leah had a brilliant idea.

Daryl was about to pull the trigger when Leah coughed as loudly as she could, sending the squirrel running up the tree and Daryl to miss his shot, probably his first since they met.

Leah couldn't help but giggle at the look that Daryl was giving her.

"Oh, you think you're so damn funny don't you," Daryl chuckled, there was no way he could be mad at Leah, they didn't need the squirrel anyway, they had already caught over a dozen.

"I like to think so, if you want more I have a special coming out soon on Comedy Central," Leah retorted.

Daryl had collected his arrow and punched Leah playfully in the arm, snickering has he did so.

"So that's how you want to play it, huh? Okay, fine," Leah shoved Daryl with all her strength, causing him to stagger a couple of feet.

Daryl threw his crossbow on the ground and started to bounce on the balls of his feet like a boxer.

"You wanna go? Do you wanna go?" Daryl smiled.

"Oh, I'm like Muhammad Ali. You never see me coming…" Leah set her bow and arrows down on a nearby tree. She made the mistake of turning her back on a Daryl, however. Before she knew it she was rolling on the forest floor with Daryl, both of them trying to pin the other. Leah was no match for Daryl's strength and he had her pinned within a minute.

Leah stared deeply into his stormy blue eyes and Daryl stared into her mint green ones, their faces about a foot apart, both breathing heavily. They were both frozen in place, neither wanting to move from their spots. Leah felt like prey under his intense gaze, feeling like he would pounce at any moment.

The sound of a twig snapping in the distance broke them of their reverie, both whipping their heads in the direction of the sound. Daryl released his grasp on Leah's wrists, but he was still hovering over her protectively. Leah adjusted herself underneath Daryl so she was on her stomach and could get a better view of the source of the sound.

Both of their eyes landed on a walker wandering about 30 yards away. It didn't look like it had heard them, and Leah was grateful for that, it gave them the element of surprise. Leah could feel Daryl getting up from above her, pulling a bowie knife from his belt. Leah watched is stunned silence as Daryl moved in stealthily behind the walker, stabbing it through its skull. Leah felt like a camera man on one of those nature documentaries, watching the lion make its kill; lethal and silent.

Leah stood from the ground as the walker fell to the ground, brushing off her pants and shirt.

Daryl walked back to Leah, wiping the blood from his knife on his pants, "We should head back to camp. Tell the others what happened."

"Right, okay." Leah would be lying if she said she wasn't at least a little shaken seeing the walker this close to camp.

Daryl swung his crossbow over his shoulder, sensing Leah's worry.

"Hey, it's okay. You're safe now."

Leah nodded, knowing he was there to protect her if she needed it. She couldn't help the nagging feeling that told her where there was one there would be others.

She picked up her bow and arrows and fell into step with Daryl as they walked back to camp with their hunt for the day. The camp was in their sights when she felt a strong hand shoving her a few feet to the side. She glared at the redneck, a huge smirk across his face. But she went ahead and shoved him back just as hard, smiling widely when she saw that she shoved him into a tree.

Glenn was the first to greet them when they got back, "How did the hunt go?"

"Good. We uh… saw a walker. Just one though."

Daryl and Leah were given nervous looks from everyone who was listening.

Shane walked up, "All right everyone, listen up now. Luckily it was only one this time, but we need to do more to make this place safe. We can do daily sweeps of the area and put up more cans for the time being."

Everyone nodded in agreement and dispersed to finish up their chores before dinner. Leah decided to head down to the quarry to wash up. She grabbed some shampoo and body wash and a change of clothes from her tent, whistling for Prince to come with her. Despite his goofiness, Prince was a good guard dog and she always felt safer with him around.

She took a basin and filled it with lake water to the makeshift stall they set up out of sheets and towels. She was about to step into the stall when she heard Prince bark, his foot raised off the ground, ready to attack if necessary. Leah reacted quickly and pulled her gun out and pointed it a figure coming out from the tree line.

"To what do I owe the pleasure Merle?" Leah let out a breath she didn't know she was holding as she lowered her weapon, Prince however still stood on defense, staring the redneck down.

"Didn't mean to scare you, sweet cheeks."

"And you did an excellent job of that," she retorted

"Ya know ya have quite the mouth on ya. I ain't never been talked to like that, 'specially from a priss such as yurself."

"I find that very hard to believe," Leah was getting tired of Merle's nicknames for her.

"As much as I don't like it, I respect ya for it. Not very many people take my shit and hand it back to me."

"Thanks, I guess." Leah wasn't getting the point he was trying to make.

"Anyways, I wanted to apologize fur earlier. I shouldn't have insulted ya like that."

Leah was staring at him, her jaw dropped to the floor. She quickly composed herself, "Thank you, Merle. I appreciate that."

"You're welcome, darlin'. If there's anything I can do for you just let me know."

"I will, Merle. Have a good night now." Leah hoped he would take the hint that she wanted to wash up before it got dark.

Merle nodded and started walking back up towards camp, but not without a parting remark.

"I'd be happy to help you rinse off, if you make your dog stand down," Merle chuckled at his cleverness.

"Good night, Merle," Leah said sternly, hearing Merle laughing in the distance.

She wondered what she had done to deserve such kindness from the gruff redneck, she half wondered if he was sober while he issued his apology. Either way, she was grateful that they had made amends… sort of.

…

The rest of the night had been peaceful, everyone had gathered around the fire to discuss more security measures for the camp. To be honest, Leah had only been half listening to the conversation, her mind wandering back to that afternoon with Daryl. She was snapped out of her daze when she felt Prince's cold nose against her palm, begging for pets. She knew that he was getting plenty of attention from the kids during the day, from what she could see, he had grown a tight bond with Carl over the past couple of days. It seemed like Carl was having a really tough time without his dad; it seemed like Prince had been a giant pillow for Carl, and Leah was glad for that.

As much attention that Prince got from everyone, Leah knew that Prince needed special attention from her. She had been petting Prince for twenty minutes when everyone had decided to head to bed. Leah stretched as she stood up, bidding everyone good night as she did so.

She got ready for bed, and before even physically got into her bed, Prince was snoring with his paws in the air. Leah laughed at the sight, she knew Prince was probably the only one in camp that was getting a good night's sleep during the apocalypse.

She hadn't pulled her iPod out in a couple of days and decided she needed a little lullaby to go to sleep, there were too many thoughts buzzing in her head to be compatible with sleep. She didn't scroll too far down her playlist when she found a song she hadn't listened to in months.

_Here I am staring at your perfection_

_In my arms, so beautiful_

_The sky is getting bright, the stars are burning out_

_Somebody slow it down_

_This is way too hard, cause I know_

_When the sun comes up, I will leave_

_This is my last glance that will soon be memory_

Leah found herself thinking of that afternoon again as she rolled up her headphones and drifted off to sleep.

**A/N: So? What do you guys think? I hope Daryl and Merle aren't too OOC, but you will see the significance of that conversation with Merle in the next part of this chapter. Don't forget to leave feedback, I love it and it is always appreciated, it inspires me to keep writing. Hope you guys had a good Valentine's Day I should have the next chapter up by the end of the week.**


	4. Chapter 4

Until I Collapse

**A/N: I am loving all of the positive feedback from you guys It always brightens my day. Sorry this is another long chapter and there aren't many Daryl/Leah moments Just a warning that there is some slight cussing in this chapter (it is Merle after all). Anyways, happy reading…**

Chapter 3 (Part II) – Wheel In The Sky

Another week had passed since the beginning of the outbreak. The camp was running low on food, forcing Daryl into longer hunting trips and sending Glenn into Atlanta to get supplies.

Leah woke up with a distinctly uneasy feeling because of the big run today. They had never sent so many people into Atlanta before, and she was worried that more people would attract unwanted attention. Surprisingly enough though, Merle had volunteered to go on the run; he was probably using it as an excuse to use his gun… and find more if possible.

Leah pulled her hair into a high ponytail as she fed Prince his breakfast; he had proved to be a good guard dog and Leah could tell he was growing closer to all the kids, he would never be bored with all of them around.

It was a little past seven in the morning when everyone gathered for breakfast, as usual Leah was the only one who bothered to think of Merle while he was keeping watch.

"Morning Merle," Leah said as she handed Merle his breakfast and a plastic fork.

"Morning Leah," Merle took the beans and started shoveling them into his mouth.

"Do my ears deceive me? Did you actually use my name?" Leah's fake amazement had Merle laughing. Leah decided to cut right to the chase, "I need to ask you a favor concerning the run today."

"I ain't grabbin' no girly shit, so just forget it!"

"Why would I ask _you_ to grab it when Andrea and Jacqui are going?" Leah replied.

"What do ya' need me for then?" Merle barked.

"I need you to look after everyone. You can protect these people, this could be your chance to prove yourself."

"I don't care 'bout those people or what they think o' me, so why should I go outta my way to babysit 'em?"

"Because I care about them, I don't know what I would do if one of them didn't come back… that includes you too. Despite your constant name-calling I have come to think of you as a friend. I know you are a good man… Daryl is too. You just need to act on it a little bit more."

Leah was staring gently at Merle as he chewed over her request.

"Damn woman, don't go getting' all pouty on me." Leah continued to stare at him, unwavering.

Finally Merle relented after several moments of Leah giving him puppy eyes.

"Just so ya know, I'm only doin' this fur you."

"And I appreciate that, really, but you don't want to disappoint me. You think I'm dangerous now, just wait and see what I'll do if you break your promise," Leah said seriously.

Merle scoffed at the idea of Leah hurting, or attempting to hurt him.

With that, Leah climbed down from the RV to start laundry for the day.

…

It was about 8:30 when everyone was getting set to leave for Atlanta. Leah went up to Merle to remind him of their discussion earlier.

"Merle, you're a good man and I want you to remember that. Look after these people, they are sort of like family to me now. And I know how much family means to you, you would do anything for Daryl and I want you to do anything for them."

"I'm doin' a lot of promsin', what 'bout you darlin'?"

"What about me?"

"You have ta promise ta look after Daryl while I'm gone."

Leah could tell by the look in his stormy eyes that he was dead serious, Merle didn't mess around when it came to his brother.

"I will, Merle. Good luck and come back safe, okay?"

"Later darlin'." Leah gave Merle a quick hug, which he briefly returned before releasing her. The hug was enough to get strange glances from some onlookers; Leah secretly wished they would at least try to get to know the Dixon brothers.

Merle cleared his throat, "Enough of this emotional crap."

That earned a smile from Leah as she went off to say goodbye to the others.

Leah gave everyone a hug and then she got to Glenn and Andrea. She gave them tighter embraces than the others, she was closest to them in age and knew they would have been close friends in another life.

"Come back to me, okay you guys? Who else am I going to have late night pizza and beer with?"

"We will," Glenn and Andrea laughed as they returned the hug with the same amount of force.

Seeing everyone get in the car, Leah couldn't ignore the nagging feeling in her stomach watching them disappear into the distance with only a trail of dust left behind.

…

Shortly after the others had left, Daryl announced that he was going on an overnight hunting trip. Leah could tell that Daryl wanted to be left alone to worry about his brother; other members of the group didn't ever want the Dixon brothers around for extended periods of time anyway.

Leah went up to Daryl before he ventured off into the woods.

"Be careful, and catch a deer for me while you're gone," Leah smiled.

"Will do, kiddo. See you tomorrow 'round noon."

"Okay. Don't have too much fun, mister." Leah smiled at the nickname Daryl gave her.

Leah gave Daryl a hug before they parted ways, relishing in his strong arms. She wasn't going to lie, she would miss him while he was gone.

Leah went off with the women of the camp to help out with the first day of laundry. With the division of laundry, Leah did hers as well as Daryl's, Merle's, and Glenn's. She laughed at the thought of Merle and Daryl doing their own laundry before everything happened. Leah also knew that Amy needed something to distract her from Andrea going to Atlanta. Everyone needed a distraction.

Leah immediately took a liking to Amy when they met. Amy was a very bubbly person and Leah liked her for that reason, it made day-to-day life a little bit easier with her to keep everyone's spirits up.

It was late afternoon when they got the first shifts of the laundry done; they decided it was time to take a break and head back up to camp. They had been up at camp for all of ten minutes when the CB radio started crackling.

A weak signal was coming through, but Leah could tell it was T-Dogg.

"Hello, base camp… Can anybody out there here me?"

Dale was rushing up to the roof of the RV to get to the radio, Shane following close behind.

"Hello, base camp… This is T-Dogg… Anybody hear me?"

"Hello? Hello? Reception's bad on this end… repeat," Dale said into the mic.

"Is that them?" Lori piped up,

"We're trapped in the department store…"

The signal was cutting in and out, Leah could hear the thunder in the distance and figured that wasn't helping.

"He said they were trapped," Shane's voice was laced with concern.

"Geeks all over the place, hundreds of them… we're surrounded."

Leah bowed her head at the news, her stomach was starting to knot thinking about everyone in Atlanta.

"T-Dogg, repeat that last, repeat…" Dale was fumbling with the knobs trying to get a better signal. Soon, all they heard was static.

"He said the department store," Lori commented, worry in her voice.

"I heard it too," Dale and Leah announced simultaneously.

"Shane," Lori was quickly interrupted.

"No. We do not go after them. We do not risk the rest of the group, ya'll know that,"

Amy was immediately set off by Shane's response.

"So you're just gonna leaver her there?"

"Amy, I know that this is not easy-"

"She volunteered to go, to help the rest of us"

"Well, she knew the risks right? See if she trapped, she's gone."

Amy was furious know, "She's my sister, you son of a bitch." Amy stormed off after that, Leah hot on her tail.

"Amy?" Leah was jogging to keep up with the blonde.

"How can he say that? We can't just leave her there…" Amy was on the verge of tears now.

"I hate to say it, but Shane is right on this. We can't risk the rest of the group, but Andrea is going to be fine. You know her better than anybody, you know how tough she is. She has Morales, Glenn, and Merle to look after her."

"She shouldn't have gone in the first place, I should have told her to stay," the tears were flowing down Amy's cheek now. Leah gave her a comforting hug.

"If I know Glenn and Morales, they will do everything they can to get your sister back here safe. Okay? Andrea's going to roll up here before dark, you just wait and see."

Amy nodded against Leah's shoulder, Leah knew that she needed to keep her busy until Andrea got back. Leah had no room to believe anything else other than their survival, she just hoped Merle was delivering on his promise.

About an hour had passed and the rain had come and gone. Amy was helping Leah and Carol prepare dinner; they had maybe 100 cans of food left, mixed between beans, soup, and fruit.

Everyone's head snapped up when they heard a far off alarm echoing through the mountains.

"Talk to me, Dale" Shane ordered.

"Can't tell yet…"

"Is it them? Are they back? What is it?"

"Stolen car's my guess…"

Everyone in the camp looked at the red Dodge in bewilderment. Leah could just make out Glenn's profile in the driver's seat. As soon as he got out of the car Shane and Amy stormed up to him.

"Pop the hood! Pop the damn hood!"

"Holy crap! Turn the damned thing off!"

"I don't know how," was Glenn's only response.

"My sister? Is she alright? My sister, Andrea?"

"Okay! Okay! Yes she's okay, she's okay!"

"Where is she? Why isn't she with you?" Andrea was getting restless now, so was everyone else in the camp, eager for some good news.

"She's okay?"

"Yes… fine. Everybody is," Leah let out a sigh of relief, too soon however.

"Well… Merle not so much…" Leah stood frozen in her place. What could have possibly happened to Merle? That was a stupid question, there were a million things that could have happened to Merle.

Leah had found that she zoned out of the conversation, her mind fluttering with images of Merle surrounded by walkers… and the thought of what Daryl would do when he found out tomorrow. That had Leah worried most.

"Sorry. I got a cool car…" Leah focused back on the conversation and laughed at Glenn, she was so glad he was okay. Apparently Prince was too, because not two seconds later Glenn found himself eye-to-eye with the German Shepherd, being smothered in kisses.

Leah couldn't help herself from hugging Glenn either, relieved to have her friend back. "I'm so happy to see you." Glenn returned the hug, only to broken by the sound of another vehicle pulling up to the camp.

A huge van pulled up with Andrea the first to emerge, running towards her sister.

"Amy!"

"Andrea!" The two sisters were running towards each other, meeting in the middle with a huge embrace. Leah and Glenn still had one arm around each other as they watched Morales and his family reunite. The scene was so touching that it had Leah tearing up, but she didn't fail to notice Carl and Lori in the distance, the little boy clearly upset that his father was not among the returning party. Leah put her forehead on Glenn's shoulder, she could only imagine what Carl was going through.

"How did ya'll get out of there anyways?" Shane questioned.

"Yeah, we thought T-Dogg said you were trapped?" Leah's curiosity was peaked now.

Glenn spoke up, "New guy, he got us out…"

"New guy?"

"Yeah, crazy vato just got into town. Hey helicopter boy! Come say hello!"

Leah couldn't see who Morales was yelling to until she saw a middle-aged man in a sheriff's uniform step out of the van.

"Guy's a cop, like you."

Leah looked back to Shane and saw the look of recognition in Shane's eyes. Leah looked back to the man, who suddenly froze as his eyes landed on Lori and Carl. Realization suddenly clicked into place as she saw Lori and Carl look on in complete disbelief.

Suddenly Carl was running toward his father and Leah was pushed over the edge at the sight of the pair collapsing to the ground, she started crying as she saw Rick and Carl go to Lori. Leah only knew Rick's name from the many times Lori had taken up Leah's offer to talk; from what Lori had said, they were hitting a rough patch in their marriage before the outbreak. After Rick got shot though, she realized how much she loved him and wished she could take all the fighting and harsh words back.

She was watching the family hug when she suddenly saw Lori look at Shane with… guilt? Shane looked almost hurt to see the family together again, seeing him like that only proved Leah's suspicions of Shane having feelings for Lori. Leah didn't dwell on it too long, she figured Shane would get over it and be glad to have his best friend back.

…

Everyone had finished their dinner and were now listening to Rick talk about his journey after he woke up in the hospital. Leah wasn't sure how he managed to survive, but she thought he was a total badass for it. It just goes to show how far determination can take you in this world.

"Disoriented… I guess that comes closest, disoriented. Fear, confusion, all those things. But disoriented comes closest."

"Words can be meager things, sometimes they fall short." Leah could always count on Dale for kind words of wisdom.

"For a while I felt I had been ripped out of my life. Put somewhere else. I felt like I was stuck in some coma… dream. Something I might never wake up from, ever."

"Mom said you died," Carl looked up at his father with the most heartbreaking face.

"And she had every reason to believe that, don't you ever doubt it."

Leah suddenly saw Ed throwing another log into the fire sending sparks into the night sky, putting Shane over the edge.

"Hey Ed, wanna rethink that log?"

"It's cold, man!" Leah knew that this would become a standoff between the two men… testosterone seemed to cause a lot of trouble even before the world went to shit.

"Cold don't change the rules does it? We keep our fires low, just embers so we can't be seen from a distance."

"I said its cold. Why don't you mind your own business for once?" Ed was clearly uninterested in anything Shane had to say. Shane had clearly had enough backtalk from Ed and went over to confront the man. Leah wondered if the conversation between Shane and Carol had actually happened, she still saw bruises on Carol's neck; she knew that if she confronted Ed herself that she wouldn't last two seconds.

As Shane walked back, Dale finally mentioned the thing that had been on Leah's mind since the group returned.

"Have you given any thought to Daryl Dixon? He won't be happy to hear his brother was left behind."

"I'll tell him, I dropped the key… it's on me," T-Dogg interjected.

"I cuffed him. That makes him mine."

Glenn interrupted, "Guys, it's not a competition. I don't mean to bring race into this, but it might sound better coming from a white guy."

"I did what I did. Got nothing to hide from."

"We could lie…" While Amy's intentions were in the right place, Leah knew that telling the truth was the best option.

"We tell the truth. Merle was out of control, something had to be done or he'd have gotten us killed." Andrea was looking directly at Lori now, "your husband did what was necessary. And if Merle got left behind, it is nobody's fault but Merle's."

Leah hung her head in disappointment, she had faith in Merle and he let her down. She promised to herself that if she ever saw him again that he would have hell to pay.

"And that's what we tell Daryl? I don't see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you?"

Leah almost laughed at Dale's comment. There would be no rational discussion with Daryl, no matter how they phrased it. Leah finally decided to put an end to their debate.

"I know him best. I'll tell him and try and keep him calm, but it'll be a long shot. He doesn't know you, Rick. Put yourself in his shoes. If a complete stranger came up to you and told you that your brother was left in Atlanta during _this_, how would you react? I think it would sound better coming from a friend, and all the rest of you barely look at him anyways." Leah's statement made everyone quiet, they knew she was right, but T-Dogg had one final word on the subject.

Leah's jaw nearly fell off when she heard that Merle was still alive, still in Atlanta. She knew that if there was any way for Daryl to get his brother back, he would do it.

Everyone got deadly quiet after the news about Merle was announced, everyone was headed off to bed when Leah asked Rick something she knew was probably true.

"Rick?"

"Yes, Leah isn't it?"

"Yes, I don't mean to keep you from your family and I know you've had a long day, but I just needed to ask you something about Merle."

"Shoot."

"Did you happen to notice if he was… under the influence when he was on the rooftop."

"He was on cocaine when I first got the lovely opportunity to meet him." Rick's voice was thick with sarcasm at that last remark, not that she could blame him; Merle wasn't exactly a field of daisies.

Leah exhaled sharply, Merle was going to have even more hell to pay if she ever saw him again. "Thanks, Rick. Well, I'll leave you to your family now. Have a good night."

"Thanks, Leah. And thanks for offering to tell Daryl, it wasn't somethin' I was lookin' forward too. Good night."

"No problem, he's my friend. I would want someone to do the same for me."

Leah turned on her heal to leave Rick with his family, she was going to be up a while. She had a general idea of how Daryl would react, she just didn't know how much he would act on his anger.

Leah needed music to help her sort through her thoughts, now more than ever. She decided classic rock would be a good place to start, and this song had been one of her all-time favorites when she was a teenager.

_Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin'_

_I don't know where I'll be tomorrow_

_Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin'_

_I've been trying to make it home_

_Got to make it before too long_

_I can't take this very much longer_

_I'm stranded in the sleet and rain_

_Don't think I'm ever gonna make it home again_

_The mornin' sun is risin'_

_It's kissing the day_

Leah had no idea what kind of state Merle was in, she had no idea what she was going to say to Daryl when he got back, and she had no idea how angry he would be when she broke the news. Her battery was at 87% when she put her iPod away. She decided to take Prince down to the quarry for a little play time in the water, she reached for her gun and checked to see that it was still fully loaded, it was.

When she got down to the quarry with Prince, the moon was at its highest in the sky, reflecting brightly onto the lake. Leah didn't know how long she had watched Prince play in the water but she got a kick out of it, he was like a kid on Christmas morning.

When Prince was finally done he came up to sit next to Leah, she pulled her knees up to her chest still contemplating how to best bring up Merle, and most importantly… keep Daryl calm. Leah stayed like that until the sun came up. She basked in its glow, but at the same time, hated the sight of it because it meant that in a couple of hours Daryl would be back from his hunt.

**A/N: Sorry this chapter was so long as well, a lot of dialogue. Let me know what you guys think, constructive criticism is always welcomed Will have the next update within the next week.**


	5. Chapter 5

Until I Collapse

Chapter 4 – Part 1

Leah was absolutely dreading Daryl coming back from his hunt in a couple of hours, but he would find out eventually what happened to Merle and Leah knew she should be there when he did.

Leah left the quarry and headed up to camp to help Amy and Jacqui with breakfast. It was quiet in the camp this morning, Shane was still keeping watch from the night before; he looked different than how she had gotten used to seeing him, he was distant and angry. Leah was stoking the fire as Amy got some cans of soup ready for breakfast, and when Leah was handed her can she suddenly found that she wasn't hungry. She decided to give extra portions to all the kids, they were getting skinny despite the adult's agreement to give them extra food.

Prince was given his breakfast, which he ate loudly, making Leah laugh despite her current mood. Carol peaked her head into Leah's tent and asked her for help with the ironing and drying. Leah was glad to have a distraction. It looked like most of the camp was up and about, except for Rick. She figured he was still sleeping, not that anyone could blame him; after what he had been through, he deserved some peace and quiet. If there is one thing you learn as an adult and even as a teenager, it's how precious sleep is. Leah remembered pulling all-nighters in college, they beat the crap out of her the next day but sometimes there weren't enough hours in the day to get everything done.

Carol had begun ironing Rick's pants when she pulled a large ball out of his pocket, Leah immediately recognized it as a hand grenade.

"Holy shit!" Leah stared at the weapon like it was about to go off.

"I think we better put this in a safe place, I'll go put in my backpack."

"Okay, there's no chance of any of the kids finding it there?"

"No, I'll keep in my tent for the time being."

When the ironing was done, Leah began to fold Daryl and Glenn's clothes. It was funny comparing the conditions of the men's various clothing. Glenn had plain t-shirts and khaki's while Daryl had dark jeans with numerous holes in them and neutral colored t-shirts (many with the sleeves cut off) and a LOT of plaid. Leah started laughing to herself at the idea of Daryl shopping for clothes, she imagined it happened very little and she just guessed he didn't shop at Gap, more like Bass Pro Shops. Leah soon stopped laughing when a couple of people gave her strange looks, it was then she realized she was laughing while holding Daryl's underwear. _Oops._

Leah saw Rick emerge from his tent in a clean shirt and jeans, he looked a lot more relaxed when he was dressed like that, not so official and intimidating. Rick's and everyone's relaxation was soon interrupted by high-pitched screaming coming from the woods.

Everyone started sprinting towards the woods when they heard Carl and Sophia calling for their mother's; the men grabbing Melee weapons for any threat that might be awaiting them. They were coming up on the border of the camp when Leah saw Carl and Sophia running towards the adults, they looked fine, no blood showing anywhere, but Lori had to make sure.

"Nothing bit you, nothing scratched you?" Carl shook his head no, embracing his mother.

Prince was right on Leah's heels when she saw a walker gnawing on a doe about ten yards away, Amy and Andrea standing next to her. A low, guttural growl was coming from Prince, determined to protect the three women from the rotting corpse. It only noticed the several men around it until it was too late and they started beating it. The men were avoiding the brain, probably to let out frustration, until Dale decapitated the thing with one swing. It was then that Leah noticed a few arrows sticking out of the deer's leg and stomach, the arrows were all too familiar to her and she got a twisting feeling in her gut. Daryl was close by.

"That's the first one we've had up here, they never come this far up the mountain," Dale remarked.

"They're running out of food in the city, that's what," Jim said matter-of-factly.

Everyone's head snapped up at the sound of branches and twigs being crushed, all getting into fight mode for the next challenge that dared face them. They all relaxed when they saw it was just Daryl… except Leah.

"Son of a bitch! That's my dear! Look at it all gnawed on by this filthy, disease-bearing, motherless, proxy bastard!" Daryl was kicking the walker now, taking out his frustration on it as well.

"Calm down, son. That's not helping," Dale tried to reason with Daryl. That wasn't helping either.

"What do you know about it old man. Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to On Golden Pond," Daryl got into Dale's face, he was in a particularly foul mood today. That made Leah extremely nervous.

"I've been tracking this deer for miles. I was gonna drag it back to camp and cook us up some venison. What do you think, you think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?" Daryl was looking at the group to get their input.

"I would not risk that," Shane said flatly, his shotgun slung over his shoulders.

"That's a dame shame. Well I got us some squirrel, about a dozen or so. That'll have to do."

The walker head had suddenly reanimated and was biting at Daryl's ankle, that sent Amy and Andrea away in disgust.

"Come on people, what the hell?" Daryl killed the thing for good with a shot through its eye socket. "It's gotta be the brain, don't ya'll know nothing?"

Daryl started walking over to Leah… how in the hell was she going to do this. She had thought about it all night and nothing came to her mind about how to approach talking about Merle _while_ keeping Daryl calm.

"Hey Leah, that was supposed to be for you," Daryl practically whispered to the raven-haired girl.

"Thanks, Daryl," Leah's heart warmed at the fact that he kept his promise… he was not making this easy.

"I need to talk to you about something…"

"Just a second, kiddo."

_Dammit, Daryl! Stop being so cute and let me talk to you!_

"Merle! Merle! Get your ugly as out here! Got us some squirrel, let's stew 'em up!"

_Shit. _ "Daryl, that's what I need to talk to you about," Leah walked up to the redneck, keeping a few feet away since she didn't want to be in his wingspan in case he got angry. "Um… something happened in Atlanta…"

Daryl started looking around at everyone in the camp, reading their facial expressions, putting two and two together. "Is he dead?" Looking into Daryl's eyes, Leah found it almost impossible to tell him that they didn't know, but she did.

"We don't know," Leah was looking at the ground now, shrinking under the redneck's intense gaze. _How could his eyes do that? Make her feel so small?_

"Either he is or he ain't!" Leah retracted at Daryl's tone, he had never spoken to her like that. Now his eyes weren't the only things that could make her feel small… but she straightened back up and opened her mouth to talk until Rick interrupted. _So much for _her_ telling him and trying to keep him calm_.

"Look, there's no easy way to say this, so I'll just say it," Rick was walking up to the fuming man.

"Who are you?" Daryl just now realizing they had a new addition to the group.

"Rick Grimes," Rick was keeping his voice level in order not to provoke Daryl.

"Rick _Grimes_. You got somethin' you wanna tell me?" Daryl was staring daggers at Rick now, not enjoying the delay in news about his brother.

"Your brother was a danger to us all. So I handcuffed him on the roof to a piece of metal. He's still there."

Daryl turned away from Rick, swallowing the news. Leah saw him bring his hand up to his face and she could tell that he had shed a tear. Just one. And he was back to being angry again.

"Let me process this. You're saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof, and you left him there?!" His voice was thick with emotion. Leah's heart was breaking at the scene unfolding before her.

"Yeah," Rick's voice was full of shame and regret. And like Leah, Rick had picked the wrong time to look away from Daryl. Rick just missed to string of squirrels being thrown at him, but Shane was quick to intervene, knocking Daryl to the ground. Daryl clearly wasn't finished, pulling out his bowie knife to slash at Rick. Again Shane was quick to intervene and managed to lock Daryl in a choke hold.

"You best let me go!"

"Nah, I think it's best if I don't."

"Choke holding's illegal."

"Yeah, well you can file a complaint. Come on now, we can keep this up all day."

Rick got on the same level as Daryl, "I'd like to have calm discussion on this topic. Do you think we can manage that?" He got into Daryl's face now, "Do you think we can manage that?"

Daryl was breathing heavily, but it looked like he had calmed down enough. Rick and Shane exchanged a glance and released Daryl.

"What I did was not on a whim. Your brother does not work and play well with others."

T-Dogg decided to enter the conversation, "It's not Rick's fault. I had the key… I dropped it."

"You couldn't pick it up?" Daryl was still angry, you didn't have to be blind to see that.

"I dropped it in a drain." Daryl dropped his head in defeat, a sob escaping his lips.

Daryl slowly got up, collecting himself. "If that's supposed to make me feel better, it don't."

"Maybe this will. I chained the door to the roof so the geeks couldn't get at him, with a padlock."

"That's gotta count for something."

Daryl turned his attention back to Rick, "Hell with all ya'll. Just tell me where he is, so I can go get 'im."

"He'll show you. Isn't that right?" Lori's voice was so calm, it was deadly; Leah didn't want to be anywhere near the brunette right now. Rick nodded after a stare down with Lori, eyes shifting to other members in the group. "I'm going back." With that, the show was over and everyone dispersed. Leah went to go sit next to Daryl who was cleaning his arrows of walker blood.

"Listen, I'm sorry about Merle. I just didn't know how to tell you."

"That's okay, kiddo. Ain't your fault. I'm sorry I got mad at ya," Daryl spared a quick glance at his friend and nudged her leg, letting her know that there was nothing for her to be sorry about.

Leah smiled, she was glad to have him back. "I'm going with you to Atlanta." That tore Daryl's attention away from his arrows. "No you're not, it's too dangerous." Leah only responded with a _"Are you shitting me?" _look. "Let's just say that Merle and I have some unfinished business to attend to."

The pair stared each other down until Daryl finally relented, knowing that there was nothing he could say to get Leah to stay behind. Leah headed back to her tent to chance into something cooler and grab her backpack, it was freaking hot out. She stuffed her pockets with as much ammo as she could fit in them; she also grabbed a couple bottles of water, some jerky, and her second handgun. She figured when they found Merle that he would be dehydrated, hungry, and probably half-crazy. Leah changed into a loose tank top, skinny jeans, and boots; she knew they would be doing a lot of running and if she wore her converse for too long they gave her blisters.

Rick emerged from his tent, once again wearing his sheriff's uniform. By the looks of their conversation, Leah would have guessed that Shane was guilt-tripping Rick into staying at the camp.

"Well I don't Rick. So could you just throw me a bone here man? Just tell me why you would risk your life for a douchebag like Merle Dixon." Shane wasn't smart enough to keep that last remark from reaching Daryl's ears; people really seemed to want to push his buttons today.

"Hey, choose your words more carefully," his voice low, threat clearly in his voice.

"Oh no, I did. Douchebag's what I meant. Merle Dixon. That guy wouldn't give you a glass of water if you were dying of thirst," Shane was refocusing his attention to Rick as Leah put a calming hand on Daryl's arm. The last thing they needed was another fight.

"What he would or wouldn't do doesn't interest me. I can't let a man die of thirst. Me. Thirst and exposure. We left him up there like an animal, that's no way for anything to die, let alone a human being." Leah could tell when she first met Rick that he was a wise man. Seeing Shane and Rick standing side by side, she could tell who the leader of the group was now; Rick was a man of conscience, and Shane was a man of desire. In a world like this, thinking of your own personal desire would get you killed. You had to think of others before yourself.

"So you and Daryl? That's your big plan?" Lori wasn't any more thrilled about the situation than Shane was, what wife would be?

Rick turned to face Glenn, looking at him expectantly.

Glenn immediately wished he hadn't been so good at navigating, "Aw, come on…"

"You know the way. You've been there before, in and out, no problem. You said so yourself. It's not fair of me to ask, I know that. But I would feel a lot better if you came along, I know she would too," Rick motioned to Lori.

"That's just great, now you're gonna risk three men, huh?"

"Three men and a baby…," Leah tried to lighten the mood but the only person who showed any sign of understanding her (or daring to laugh at her reference) was Daryl. "Merle and I have some issues we need to straighten out."

"What the hell are _you_ gonna do?" Leah was taken aback by Lori's down right bitchy comment.

"I'm gonna go save a man's life while you hang up balloons and streamers for his welcome back party." Leah knew it was harsh, but she didn't know where the sudden depreciation for Leah came from, especially after all Leah had done to help Lori the past couple of weeks.

"Five," Leah was brought back to the current conversation, a little surprised to hear T-Dogg volunteer.

This idea made Daryl scoff, "My day just gets better and better don't it," Leah slapped him lightly on the arm, silently telling him to behave.

"Do you see anybody else stepping up to save your brother's cracker ass?"

"Why you?"

"You wouldn't even begin to understand. You don't speak my language."

"That's five," Dale sounded concerned to have so many people going.

"It's not just five. You're putting everyone single one of us at risk, just know that Rick. Come on, you saw that walker. It was here, it was in camp. They're moving out of the cities. If they come back? We need every able body we got, we need 'em here to protect camp." Shane was always one to argue, Leah would give him that.

"Seems to me what you really need here… are more guns."

"Right… guns," Glenn seemed to be the only one who knew what Rick was talking about.

"Wait, what guns?"

"Six shotguns, two high-powered rifles, and over a dozen handguns. I cleaned out the cage back at the station before I left. I dropped the bag in Atlanta when I got swarmed. It's sittin' in the street just waiting to be picked up."

"Ammo?"

"Seven hundred rounds, assorted." Leah would have guessed that Shane discovered America with the look of amazement he had on his face.

Lori was still a hard sell, "You went through _hell_ to find us. You just got here and now you're gonna turn around and leave?" "Dad, I don't want you to go." Having Carl say that, he might as well as punched Rick in the gut.

"To hell with the guns. Shane is right. Merle Dixon? He isn't worth one of your lives, even with guns thrown in… Tell me! Make me understand."

"I owe a debt to a man I met… and his little boy. Lori, if they hadn't have taken me in, I'd have died. It's because of them I made it back to you at all. I sent them to Atlanta, they'll walk into the same trap I did if I don't warn them."

"What's stopping you?"

"The walkie talkie, the one in the bag I dropped. He's got the other one. We we're planning to connect when they got closer."

"Is it our walkies?"

"Yeah."

"So use the CB. What's wrong with that?" Leah had almost forgotten that Andrea was there she was so quiet.

"CB's fine, it's the walkies that suck. They're crap. They date back to the seventies, don't match any other bandwidth, not even the scanners in our cars."

Rick and Lori were having a stare-down when Rick pleaded with Lori one last time, "I need that bag," Lori's silence was Rick's answer.

…

Glenn began to back up the cube van so everyone could load their stuff, while Rick and T-Dogg went to see about bolt cutters. Glenn climbed out of the van and walked over to Leah, "Are you sure you want to do this? What has Merle ever done for you?"

"It's not what he's done for me, it's what I'm gonna do to him. He promised me that he would look after you guys when you went on the run, and by Rick's description of what happened when you guys got back, I'd say his word was shot to hell. And I promised him that if he did that, I would beat the living crap out of him… and I plan to deliver."

"You're scary, you know that right?" Leah could tell that Glenn was slightly serious.

"I've been told that before… plus all women can be terrifying if you catch them at the wrong time of the month. And I would never miss and opportunity for a road-trip with you guys." Leah winked at Glenn who was laughing now.

Daryl had grown impatient to say the least, and laid on the horn as Leah was hugging everyone goodbye. Leah saved the best for last as she kneeled down to give Prince a kiss on his floppy ears, which earned her an even sloppier kiss on the face. "You take care of everyone here, you hear me?" Prince wagged his tail in response and gave her one last kiss before she walked over to the van.

Daryl hopped down from the van to help Leah with her bags. She lifted her shirt up to wipe Prince's kisses off of her face, revealing her belly button piercing and the slightest traces of a tattoo on her hip bone, which didn't go unnoticed by a certain redneck. His eyes lingered a little too long on her toned mid-section, not able to avert his gaze before she caught him.

"Are you blushing Daryl Dixon?"

"Pssh, no. It's just freaking hot outside."

"Got that right. It's like we're inside Satan's boxer briefs." Leah laughed at her own metaphor. Even though she grew up in Florida humidity, heat was just something you never enjoyed.

Rick and T-Dogg came over with Dale's bolt cutters and they were off to the big city.

…

The car ride was fairly silent, only broken by the occasional directions from Glenn. Leah decided she had had enough of the awkward silences.

"Does anyone want to sing 'Ninety-nine Bottle of Beer'?" Everyone seemed to laugh at her suggestion to sing the most annoying car-ride song ever invented. Her mind drifted to the idea of being so amazingly bored that you would start counting bottles of beer on the wall and then writing a song about it. She was broken from her reverie by Daryl addressing T-Dogg.

"He better be okay, that's my only word on the matter."

"I told you, the geeks can't get at him. The only thing that's getting through that door… is us."

"We walk from here," Leah couldn't believe they were there already. She was getting nervous, she hadn't been in the city yet, but if she had to go with people, she would want it to be these men.

They were parked about a mile away from the city and they all started jogging, wanting to find Merle and the guns and leave as soon as possible.

They found the department store without too much trouble, and there was only one walker on the first floor. With Daryl being the only one with a Melee weapon, he would be the one to take it out.

"Damn, you are one ugly skank," he pulled the trigger; a clean shot in the forehead.

The staircase looked clear and they ran up the stairs, finding that the padlock was still in place. T-Dogg was right, that chain was strong and it took some effort to break. Daryl kicked down the door, not expecting to see what was left of his brother.

"Merle! Merle!" His voice was frantic when he couldn't see find him anywhere.

What they saw next shocked all of them; Leah's heart skipped a beat when she saw Rick's handcuffs, Dale's hacksaw, and Merle's hand on the roof.


	6. Chapter 6

Until I Collapse

**A/N: So sorry the lack of author's notes on the last chapter, I was just so eager to post it. I really did not intend for this chapter to be split into two parts as well, it was either two longer chapters or one Hobbit length chapter lol By the way, tons of love to all of the people who have followed, favorited, and reviewed my story, you guys rock! Another little warning about some language in this chapter, it's not much but it is there, hence the "T" rating **

**Anyways… onto the next!**

Chapter 4 – Part 2 "Walk On"

"NO! NO!" Daryl's screams filled the air as he stared at this brother's hand in disbelief. Then Daryl turned to look at Rick, Glenn, and T-Dogg, they all looked ashamed because they had been the last ones to see Merle. Leah's eyes locked with his, and for the second time that day, her heart broke for him.

Everyone slowly climbed down the stairs to inspect the sight before them. Daryl was breathing heavily and let out a grunt of frustration as he aimed his crossbow at T-Dogg's forehead. Rick immediately put a gun to Daryl's head but Leah stepped in between Daryl and T-Dogg.

Rick was using his "bad cop" voice, "I won't hesitate. I don't care if every walker in the city hears it."

"Daryl?" His eyes were trained on his target.

"Daryl, sweetie. Can you look at me please?" Leah pleaded with her friend, she hated seeing him like this.

After a moment, Daryl met Leah's gaze. "Daryl, I am _so_ sorry about Merle. Believe me when I say I know exactly what you're going through, but I don't want you to do anything you'll regret later," Leah laid a gentle hand on his crossbow, trying to make him lower the weapon. When he finally succumbed to her plea, Leah let out a small sigh, she didn't like being on that side of his crossbow.

It only took a matter of seconds before Daryl composed himself again, "Do you got a do-rag or somethin'?" T-Dogg silently handed him one. Daryl laid out the fabric carefully next to the hand and lifted it up to inspect the damage.

"I guess the saw blade was too dull for the handcuffs. Ain't that a bitch?" He wrapped the hand delicately in the bright blue do-rag and then putting it in Glenn's bag. Leah could tell from Glenn's look of disgust that he wasn't happy to be the one to carry it.

Daryl transformed into his tracker self as he analyzed the scene like a police officer. "He must have used a tourniquet, maybe his belt. He would've lost a lot more blood if he didn't." The group silently followed Daryl and the blood trail Merle had left for them.

A door was open on the other side of the roof, leading to a broad stairwell. They followed the trail into the remains of an office. Everyone was on guard, their weapons at the ready; Rick and Leah were following behind Daryl, their guns pointed at the floor, ready to shoot if necessary with Glenn and T-Dogg bringing up the rear.

They walked through the main entrance into the office after Daryl took out a particularly vile corpse, only to find two more walkers that had been killed recently.

"He had enough in him to take out these two sons of bitches… one handed," Daryl still clinging onto the hope that his brother was somewhere in the building. "Toughest asshole I ever met, my brother. Feed him a hammer and he crap out nails."

"Any man can pass out from blood loss, no matter how tough he is," Rick clearly wasn't trying to feed into the dream that Merle was still there. They followed the blood trail into a kitchen.

"Merle? You in here?"

"We're not alone in here, remember?"

"Screw that. He could be bleeding out, you said so yourself."

"I don't think he's bleeding out anymore," Leah saw blood splattered on some burners and the burnt remains of a belt on the stove. Rick picked up an iron with burnt flesh on it, Leah knew exactly what Merle had done, but she didn't know if she would be tough enough to do it to herself though.

Glenn asked the obvious question, just to confirm his suspicion's, "What's that brown stuff?"

"Skin, he cauterized the stump," Rick stated flatly.

"I told you he was tough. Nobody can kill Merle but Merle."

"Don't take that on faith, he's lost a lot of blood."

Daryl had already moved on to a broken window on the other side of the room. "Yeah? Didn't stop him from bustin' out of this death trap."

Glenn was just as shocked as Leah was, "He left the building?! Why would he do that?"

"Why wouldn't he? He's out there alone as far as he knows. Doin' what he's gotta do, survivin'."

T-Dogg joined in on the conversation, "You call that survivin'? Just wandering out in the streets, maybe passin' out? What are his odds out there?"

Daryl had had enough of everyone doubting his brother, "No worse than being handcuffed and left to rot by you sorry pricks!"

"Daryl, you know that we're all sorry that this happened. I'm sure if we could take it back, we would," Leah knew that Daryl's comment made T-Dogg feel even worse, but they didn't need to be pointing fingers right now.

Daryl turned to face Rick, clearly not finished with his rant, "You couldn't kill him. I'm not worried about some dumb _dead_ bastard."

"What about a thousand dumb dead bastards? Different story?" Rick had a point, Merle had to battle and entire city of those things to even hope to survive.

"Why don't you take a tally? Do what you want, I'm gonna go get him." Rick put a hand on Daryl's chest, the last thing they needed to do was split up. "Daryl! Wait!"

That pushed him over the edge again, "Get your hands off me! You can't stop me!"

"I can't blame you he's family, I get that. I went through hell to find mine. I know exactly how you feel. He can't get far with that injury, and we'll help you check a few blocks around, but only if we keep a level head."

"I can do that," Daryl would do whatever he had to do to find his brother.

"Only if we get those guns first, I'm not strolling the streets of Atlanta with just my good intentions, okay?"

"T-Dogg's right. We're gonna need a lot more than three guns and a crossbow if we want to make it out of here alive," Leah added.

"To the drawing board. Follow me," she could see the gears moving in Glenn's head as they walked into the office to draw up a plan.

Glenn drew a map of the couple of blocks around the tank where Rick dropped the bag of guns, Leah was sitting on a desk as Glenn tried to explain what his plans were.

"You're not doing this alone."

"That goes without saying, Rick. Glenn, I don't care if you've been in this city a hundred times by yourself. It's different now," there was no way Leah was letting her friend go out there unprotected.

"Even I think it's a bad idea and I don't even like you much."

"It's a good idea, okay? Just here me out. If we go out there as a group, we're slow. If I got out there by myself, I can move fast," Glenn wasn't convincing anybody and Leah was always the type of person that needed a plan in order to feel comfortable doing something.

"Look, that's the tank. Five blocks from where we are now," Glenn placed a binder clip and a crumpled post-it next to it on his map, "that's the bag of guns. Here's the alley I dragged you into when we first met. That's where Daryl and I will go."

"Why me?"

"Your crossbow is quieter than Rick and Leah's guns. While Daryl waits here in the alley, I run up the street and grab the bag. Leah will be in the alley closest to tank to cover me there, because Daryl's crossbow only has so much range."

"What, you got us elsewhere?"

"You and T-Dogg, right. You'll be in this alley, here."

"Two blocks away? Why?"

"I may not be able to come back the same way. Walkers might cut me off, if that happens I won't go back to Daryl or Leah, I'll go forward. All the way around to that alley where you guys are. Whichever way I go, I've got you on all sides to cover me. Afterwards, we'll all meet back here."

It was a good plan, Leah felt comfortable with it. Glenn's ass was covered no matter what happened.

"Hey, kid. What'd you do before all this?"

"Delivered pizzas, why?"

"You should have been in the military or something. Damn." They were all impressed with Glenn's tactical knowledge.

…

They were all in their places waiting for the plan to take action. The street didn't look too occupied from Leah's standpoint, but there were plenty of places for walkers to hide. Then Leah saw Glenn jump over some sandbags near the tank. It didn't look like he attracted too much attention, none of the walkers were close enough for him to start worrying. Then Leah heard a strange voice yelling in Spanish, increasing the number of walkers on her side of the tank. It didn't look like he could go to Rick and T-Dogg so Leah took out some walkers that were a little too close to Glenn for comfort; then she heard the same voice call out again. _Who the hell is that? Are they freaking stupid?! _She couldn't exactly pinpoint where the voice was coming from, but it was close.

Leah covered Glenn until he was within Daryl's range, little did she know that Daryl was otherwise distracted. The walkers heard her gunshots and started heading in her direction. She decided it was time to move and started heading down alleyways until she was across the street from Rick and T-Dogg. They motioned for her to come to them.

"What the hell is that?!"

"I don't know, but we're gonna find out," Rick was getting anxious as well, whoever was yelling was screwed over if they kept it up.

Rick led the way to Daryl's alley with T-Dogg and Leah bringing up the rear. Daryl was in their sights when they saw him shove a kid into the wall. Rick intervened before it got out of hand and T-Dogg held the kid against the wall with Leah's gun pointed at his head.

"Whoa! Whoa! Stop it!"

"I'm gonna kick your nuts up into your throat!" Rick was trying to put as much distance between the teenager and the enraged redneck. Leah noticed that Glenn was nowhere to be found, fear pulsing through her.

"Chill out!" T-Dogg was struggling to keep the kid still. This guy really was stupid to try and get away with a gun pointed to his head.

"You move one more time and I _will_ pull the trigger!" That kept the kid from squirming. Leah could feel the adrenaline inside of her, she had had a long day and this little prick wasn't helping; T-Dogg gave her a frightened look, she could be intimidating when she wanted to be.

"They took Glenn! Him and his little bastard, homie friends! I'm gonna stomp your ass!" Rick was really struggling to keep Daryl contained.

Upon hearing this new development Leah pressed the gun harder into the kid's temple.

T-Dogg brought their attention back to all of the walkers piling against the gate, "Guys! We're cut off!"

"Get to the ladder! Go!"

Leah and T-Dogg shoved the kid towards the fire escape, making him climb first. There was no way they were letting him out of their sights. They quickly climbed up the latter into the office where they had devised this whole plan.

Rick sat the kid down on the floor to start the interrogation. Leah could tell this kid was a trouble maker _before_ the world went to hell. He was wearing a silver chain and had a pot leaf tattooed on his neck. And his attitude was what pissed her off the most. _Did this kid realize that they were armed and he had no hope of escaping? _

"Those men you were with, we need to know where they went," Rick was being unreasonably calm; he definitely liked to play good cop/bad cop. Daryl, however, was pacing around the room like a caged animal.

"I ain't telling you nothin'."

"Jesus man, what the hell happened back there?" Leah was curious too, she hadn't seen the other men that Rick was talking about. She doubted they left unscathed with the mood Daryl was in.

"I told you! This little turd and his douchebag friends came out of nowhere and jumped me!" He certainly had a treasure chest of insults for the teenager, Leah knew he probably wasn't even scratching the surface.

"Man, you're the one who jumped me, puto. He was screaming at me about his brother like it was my damn fault."

"They took Glenn, they could've taken Merle too," Daryl reasoned.

"Merle? What kind of hick name is that? I wouldn't name my dog Merle." Daryl had decided that was enough attitude from the teenager and kicked at him.

Rick put some distance between the two yet again, "Dammit, Daryl. Back off!" Daryl went to Glenn's backpack and pulled out T-Dogg's do-rag. Leah couldn't help suppressing a smirk when she could see where Daryl was headed with this.

He unwrapped the hand, "Want to see what happened to the last guy who pissed me off?" He then tossed the hand on the kid's lap.

Any bravado he was trying to build to this group of strangers was immediately shattered when he screamed and threw the hand onto the floor, backing into a stack of tables with Daryl in his face as he did so.

"We'll start with the feet this time!"

Rick played the peacekeeper again, pulling Daryl from the frightened hostage. "The men you were with took our friend. All we want to do is talk to them, see if we can work something out." The kid finally nodded in agreement.

…

They were led to the outside of an old brick building just outside of the city, the building was covered in graffiti and was falling apart and the seams. It had clearly seen better days, then again they all had. Rick and Leah had loaded some shotguns while T-Dogg was loading one of the high-powered rifles. It had been decided that T-Dogg would act as a sniper for insurance purposes as they met with the leader of the kid's group.

"Are you sure you're up for this?" Leah knew that T-Dogg had never killed anyone, and it was no doubt different from killing a walker. To be honest, she was wracked with nerves as well; people were a whole different kind of threat.

T-Dogg nodded silently and went to take his position on the roof outside of the courtyard.

"One wrong move, and you get an arrow in the ass. Just so you know."

"G's gonna take that arrow out of my ass and shove it up yours, just so _you_ know," Leah highly doubted that, their trio was armed to the teeth now, thanks to Rick. She didn't think they had to worry about being outgunned.

"G?"

"Guillermo, he's the man here."

"Okay then," Rick and Leah cocked their shotguns, "let's go see Guillermo."

The four of them walked slowly into the courtyard. The brick structures looked like it had been a warehouse with the roof taken off. Daryl and Rick had their weapons trained at the back of the hostage's head while Leah cleared the corners of the yard.

They came up to a set of double doors, after a moment they opened to reveal a Hispanic man, whom she guessed to be Guillermo, wearing all black with two others waiting in the shadows.

"You okay little man?" Of course he was okay, he walked here didn't he? Leah decided it was best to keep that thought to herself; her sarcasm sometimes got the best of her.

"They said they'd cut off my feet, carna."

Guillermo pointed a curious glance to Rick, "Cops do that?"

"Not him, this redneck puto here. He cut off some dude's hand, man. He showed it to me."

Leah had had enough of this kid's backtalk, apparently so had Daryl, "Shut up!"

The two men finally decided to show themselves, one of them holding a revolver and the other a handgun. Leah immediately pointed her shotgun at the larger man, he was bringing a knife to a gun fight.

"That's the vato that shot me in the ass! That one, right there!"

Leah didn't like how fast this guy was advancing, "I'd stop walking right there if I were you."

"Chill, ese, chill. Chill," Guillermo put a hand up to stop the man, "This true? He want's Miguelito's feet? That's pretty sick, man."

"We were hoping more for a calm discussion," she knew that Rick would want to avoid hurting these people if at all possible. She did too, but she would kill them if she had to. She would do anything to protect her family.

"That hillbilly jumps at Felipe's little cousin, beats on him, and threatens to cut off his feet. Felipe gets an arrow in the ass, and you want a calm discussion? You fascinate me."

"Heat of the moment. Mistakes were made, on both sides."

"Who's that dude to you anyway? You don't look related."

"He's one of our group, more or less. I'm sure you have a few like him," Rick referred to Guillermo's four henchmen behind him.

"And what about this sweet, little chica here?"

"Hey, eyes up front amigo!" Leah's stomach flipped as Daryl defended her honor; chivalry never died, even in a freaking apocalypse.

"You got my brother in there?" Daryl really would stop at nothing to find his kin.

"Sorry, fresh out of white boys. But I got an Asian. You interested?"

"I have one of yours, you have one of mine. Sounds like an even trade."

"Don't sound even to me." _Where did this guy come off?_

"G? Come on, man."

"My people got attacked. Where's the compensation for their pain and suffering? More to the point, where's my bag of guns?"

"And our people didn't get attacked? Your boys beat on Daryl with a baseball bat!" Could this guy really write off that they kidnapped Glenn first?

"Calm down, Leah… Guns?"

"The bag Miguel saw in the street. The one Felipe and Jorge went back to get. That bag of guns."

"You're mistaken."

"I don't think so."

"About it being yours. It's my bag of guns."

Guillermo was getting frustrated, "The bag was in the street. Anybody can come along and say it was theirs. Are we supposed to take your word? What's to stop my people from unloading right here and now, and I take what's mine?"

Leah repositioned her aim at Felipe; she could feel sweat dripping down her temple, the adrenaline in her system once again.

"You could do that…" Rick glanced over to T-Dogg on the roof, "or not."

Guillermo wasn't intimidated by their sniper, "Oye!"

Leah saw three people on the roof, the one in the center she figured was Glenn with a bag over his head. The bag was pulled off to reveal that it was indeed Glenn.

Guillermo brought their attention back to the ground, "I see two options. You come back with Miguel and my bag of guns, everybody walks. Or you come locked and loaded and we'll see which side spills more blood."

Guillermo gave T-Dogg one last glance and parted with a confident smirk, retreating back into his cave. Leah, Rick, and Daryl all the while holding their aim until the set of doors closed.

…

They found a vacant building nearby, deciding to stock up on ammunition there. Leah knew they were going to walk away with Glenn one way or another.

"Guns are worth more than gold; gold won't protect your family, put food on the table. You willing to give that up for that kid?" Daryl apparently had the idea that Rick was going to hand their guns over; Rick knew how valuable guns were, they saved his life on more than occasion in this world.

"If I knew we'd get Glenn back, I might agree. You think that vato across the way is just gonna hand him over?"

"Are you calling G a liar?" This guy really needed to learn when to shut up.

"Are you part of this? Do you wanna hold on to your teeth?" It was fairly clear that the four of them had had enough of Miguel.

"We're getting Glenn back. I'm not leaving here without him." Glenn had been there for her when she needed someone to talk to or to joke with, and she sure as hell was going to be there for him.

T-Dogg was talking to Rick and Leah now, "The question is, do you trust that man's word?"

"No, the question is what you're willing to bet on it. It could be more than them guns. It could be your life. Glenn worth that to you?" They all knew what Glenn meant to Leah, he had been one of her best friends so she let Rick answer this one.

"What life I have, I owe to him. I was nobody to Glenn, just some idiot stuck in a tank. He could've walked away but he didn't. Neither will I." Leah was respecting Rick more and more every second she was with him.

"So you're gonna hand the guns over." It wasn't a question so much as a statement.

"I didn't say that. There's nothing keeping you here, you should get out."

"No way, we're not leaving you to fend for yourself again."

"And tell your family what?" Leah couldn't even imagine what Lori would have done if they went back to camp without Rick. She brushed the thought from her head… they would leave with everyone they had come with.

Rick looked at all of them, silently asking them if they were sure they wanted to stay. They were going to fight, no question about it. They all started loading every gun they could carry.

Miguel decided to speak up again, to deaf ears, "Come on, this is nuts." Daryl put a finger in his chest telling him to butt out. "Just do like G says."

Rick finally decided to shut the kid up indefinitely by covering his mouth, Leah kicked herself for not thinking of that sooner. They all set out again determined to get their friend back.

They found themselves at the building again, it was eerily quiet. The double doors opened as they approached them and Daryl pushed Miguel through by his collar; he was enjoying that a little too much. Leah's previous estimate of how many men Guillermo had was completely off; she would have guessed ten, but the room they were in held at least twenty, maybe thirty. Miguel was shoved to the center of the room as Guillermo and his men fell into position. Leah pointed her shotgun at Felipe, she had figured the way he was positioned behind Guillermo that he was second in command.

Guillermo looked less than pleased to see that Rick had chosen the latter of his two options. "I see my guns, but they're not all in the bag."

"That's because they're not yours. I thought I mentioned that." Leah internally laughed at Rick, he was sassy when he wanted to be.

"Let's just shoot these fools right now, unload on their asses," Felipe was definitely Guillermo's second in command and his comment only made Leah even more tense, if that was possible.

"I don't think you appreciate the gravity of the situation."

"Oh, I'm pretty clear," Rick cut Miguel's bindings off and shoved him to G's side, "you have your man, I want mine."

G was pissed now, "I'm gonna chop up your boy. Feed him to my dogs; three of the evilest, nastiest, man-eating bitches you ever saw. I picked them up from Satan at a yard sale. I told you how it has to be, are you woefully deaf?"

"My hearing's fine. You said come locked and loaded," everyone in the room cocked their guns and took aim, "okay then. We're here." If Rick had been standing any closer, he would have been shoving the gun up Guillermo's nose.

What followed was probably the longest seconds of Leah's life; the tension in the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife, but it was cut by a woman's voice calling for Felipe.

"Felipe? Felipe?" A little woman appeared wearing a robe and slippers, curlers in her hair. Everyone stared in complete shock; the woman seemed completely oblivious to thirty people pointing guns at each other.

"Abuela," Felipe's eyes were still locked with Leah's, their guns pointed at each other, "go back with the others. Now!"

"Get that old lady out of the line o' fire!"

Guillermo tried to intervene, "Abuela, listen to your mijo, okay? This is not that place for you right now." That was the understatement of the century.

This lady wasn't leaving without Felipe, "Mr. Gilbert is having trouble breathing! He needs his asthma stuff. Carlitos couldn't find it, he needs his medicine!"

G was trying to regain control of the situation, "Felipe, go take care of it, okay? And take your grandmother with you!"

Felipe finally relented, "Abuela, ven conmigo por favor." The woman finally realized that her grandson wasn't alone in the room, looking at Rick in his sheriff's uniform.

"Who are those men? And the woman?"

Felipe wanted to get his grandmother out of there as fast as possible, "Abuela! Ven conmigo por favor."

"Don't you take him."

"Ma'am?" Rick was as confused as Daryl, Leah, and T-Dogg were.

"Felipe's a good boy. He have his trouble but he pull himself together. We need him here."

"Ma'am, I'm not here to arrest you're grandson."

"Then what do you need him for?"

"He's helping us find a missing person, a fella named Glenn."

"The Asian boy? He's with Mr. Gilbert. Come, come I show you. He needs his medicine."

Guillermo was reluctant to say the least to let them be taken to Glenn, "Let them pass."

"Abuela, por favor. Take me to him."

Leah finally lowered her gun, falling into step next to Daryl; she was relieved that they hadn't had to shoot anybody. They were being led through a series of hallways until they came up to another courtyard, men guarding the fences against walkers. They climbed up the staircase into what looked like a nursing home. Leah was looking into some of the rooms as they walked pass, seeing elderly people being cared by people closer to Leah's age. They finally came into a rec room with people huddling around a man who was breathing heavily, Mr. Gilbert; and Glenn was leaning against a table observing.

Rick was livid, "What the hell is this?"

"Asthma attack, he couldn't catch his breath all of a sudden."

T-Dogg lost his temper at Glenn's nonchalantness, "We thought you were being eaten by dogs, man!"

Glenn turned his head to three Chihuahuas, the middle one barking at the new strangers. Leah exchanged a look with Daryl, both looking equally annoyed.

"Holy shit," Leah let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, relieved that Glenn was okay but pissed beyond belief at Guillermo.

"Did you get those dogs from Satan or Malibu Barbie?" Guillermo had just entered the room, but didn't bother responding to Leah.

"Can I have a word with you?" Rick needed to talk to the cocky leader of the nursing home.

Glenn walked up to Daryl and Leah, "What's going on?" Leah only responded by punching him in the arm. "Ow, what was that for?"

"Don't you ever scare me like that again! But it's good to have you back."

"Thanks," Glenn was glad to see Leah again too, even though he knew he wasn't in real danger with these people.

…

Guillermo took the group back to his room to have a private conversation about their set up.

"What about the rest of your crew?"

"The vatos, most trickle in to check on their parents and grandparents. They see how things are and most decide to stay. It's a good thing too, we need the muscle. The people we've encountered since things fell apart. The worst kind. Plunderers, the kind that take by force."

"That's not who we are," Rick reassured him.

"How was I to know? My people got attacked and you show up with Miguel hostage… appearances."

"I guess the world changed."

"No, it's the same as it ever was. The weak get taken. So we do what we can here. The vatos work on those cars, talk about getting the old people out of the city. But most of them can't even get to the bathroom by themselves, so that's just a dream. Still, it keeps the crew busy and that's worth something. So we boarded all the windows and welded all the doors shut, except for one entrance. Vatos, they go out and scavenge what they can to keep us going. We watch the perimeter night and day, and we wait. The people here… they look to me now. I don't even know why."

Leah respected the man even though he hit on her, he was doing an admirable thing keeping a group this size safe. Much like Rick, he found himself as their leader without asking to be.

"Because they can," Rick knew what Guillermo had to go through and started giving him some of the guns and ammunition from his bag.

…

They said goodbye to Guillermo and were on their way. They had almost reached the van when Glenn decided to lighten the mood, "Admit it. You only came back to Atlanta for the hat."

Rick smiled, "Don't tell anybody."

Daryl was still pissed, "You've given away half our guns and ammo."

"Not _nearly_ half," Rick countered.

"For what? A bunch of old farts that are gonna die off momentarily anyhow? Seriously, how long do you think they got?"

"How long to any of us," Leah knew as well as everybody that tomorrow wasn't promised for anybody.

They all stopped in their tracks when they saw that their van wasn't where they left it.

"Oh my god…"

"Where the hell's our van?"

"We left it right there, who would take it?"

Rick knew, "Merle."

Daryl had a sudden realization, "He's gonna be taking some vengeance back to camp."

"It's gonna be dark soon, we better double-time it," Leah didn't want to be this close to Atlanta after sunset. And with that they all started jogging towards the direction of camp, thankful that Glenn knew the way like the back of his hand.

The sun had just set and they were about a mile from camp, all of them eager for their trip to be over. Leah was especially eager to be in her tent with Prince, it was just then that she realized that she hadn't slept in thirty-six hours and eaten in about forty-eight. She just had to push a little longer and she could get some soup and sleep to her heart's content.

They were about a half-mile away from camp when they heard multiple screams and gunshots rip through the night air.

"Oh my god!"

They were full out sprinting now, the screams continuing to pierce their ears. They finally made it to the camp, only to see a massacre of walkers attacking everyone. Leah went on the immediate defense and shot every walker she laid eyes on, Daryl right beside her. Everyone was scrambling for safety, Shane had Lori, Carl, Carol, and Sophia behind him, leading them up to the RV. Leah's eyes landed on Prince, crouching protectively in front of Morales' family. Leah shot the last walker in the head, everything growing quiet; the only sound to be heard was sobbing in the distance. Finding the source of the sound, Leah's heart sank to her feet as she saw Andrea kneeling over Andrea's bloody, lifeless figure.

The whole camp was frozen in place, staring at the horror before them. All of the kids were sobbing into their mother's stomachs and Prince walked slowly over to Leah, nuzzling his face against her leg. She absentmindedly stroked his head, numb with fear and grief.

Leah was torn back to reality when she saw Daryl standing in front of her, worry evident in his eyes. Only one thing came to her mind when she saw him, "Get me out of here, Daryl. Get me out of here."

"Come on, kiddo," Daryl put a protective hand on the small of her back and led her to his pick-up truck. Leah was thankful it was farther away from camp, she didn't want to be around a lot of people at the moment. She needed time to collect herself.

Daryl pulled the tailgate down for them to sit on. Leah wrapped her arms around her legs and stared into the distance, only half aware that Daryl was rubbing her back comfortingly.

"You're safe now. I told you I would be there to protect you, you don't need to be afraid," Daryl's voice was barely above a whisper, but his words comforted her.

They sat in that position for a couple of minutes until Leah finally summoned up the courage to talk. "She didn't deserve it. To die like that," she looked at Daryl; he stayed silent, telling her to continue. "She was one of the most bubbly, happy people I have ever met and now she's… just gone," Leah shed a tear at the memories she had of Amy. In every single one of them, she was smiling or laughing. It was a rare quality you saw in people. The group needed someone like Amy around, to lift their spirits when they needed it.

"Come on, let's take you back to your tent." Daryl took Leah's hand gently and led her back to camp, avoiding any route where they would pass Amy.

They came up to Leah's tent and she stopped before walking in, turning to face Daryl. "Thanks for being there, Daryl." Leah couldn't express how much she was grateful to him for being there, she felt truly safe around him.

"Any time, kiddo. If you need, you know where I'll be." He pulled her into a comforting hug, which she returned, saddened when they pulled apart. "Try and get some sleep, darlin'. You look like hell."

"You don't look much better," Leah retorted. She climbed into her tent with Prince right behind her. She needed to honor Amy. And the best way she knew how to do that was to play a song for her. She pulled out her iPod and scrolled to her favorite band.

_And if the darkness is to keep us apart_

_And if the daylight feels like it's a long way off_

_And if your glass heart should crack_

_Before the second you turn back_

_Oh no, be strong_

_Oh, oh, walk on, walk on_

_What you got, they can't steal it_

_No, they can't even feel it_

_Walk on, walk on_

_Stay safe tonight_

_You're packin' a suitcase for a place, none of us has been_

_A place that has to be believed, to be seen_

_You could have flown away, a singin' bird in an open cage_

_Who will only fly, only fly for freedom_

Leah knew that Amy was in a better place now, she didn't have to fight for her life any more. She could finally be at peace, and Leah was glad for that. There was nothing the group could do now except give everyone they lost a proper burial… and walk on.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Hey guys! This week's episode of TWD was pretty good, I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. Sorry this took a little longer to update than the past couple of chapters, I had an emotionally draining weekend, but my Spring Break is coming up so there should be more updates the next couple of days. Let me know what you guys think of Leah's badass side that we got to glimpse last chapter, I personally had a lot of fun writing it. **

**P.S. Thanks a million for more positive feedback! I love you guys 3**

**Onto the next!**

Chapter 5 – MLK

Leah had tried to go to sleep that night, finding it useless between the constant reel of images of Amy and the other's that had been taken during the attack, and the constant paranoia that every leaf rustling or twig breaking was another group of walkers descending on their kill.

She changed out of her clothes, finding them too much of a reminder of what had happened the previous night. She fed Prince his breakfast, noticing that he was yawning much more than normal. At least she wasn't the only insomniac in camp at the moment. Leah decided it was time to subdue the hunger pains in her stomach; she took a hunk of jerky out from the bag she would have given to Merle if they had found him. She only had a couple of bites of meat and a few sips of water before she realized that she couldn't stomach her food when, in a couple of minutes, she would have to face the terror in the camp all over again.

The sun hadn't quite risen yet when she stepped out of her tent, Prince finishing his breakfast. If she was being honest, she was dreading the sight of the massacre to the people she now thought of as family. But it wasn't time to be weak, it was time to put her wall up and help these people grieve. She was coming up on the RV when she saw that Andrea hadn't moved from last night. Leah knew it was time to do what she did best.

"Andrea?" Andrea's gaze didn't leave Amy's bloody figure.

"I just wanted to say that I am so sorry for your loss. I thought of Amy as a sister too, and I wanted to let you know that every memory I have of her is a happy one. And that's what you need to remember know, you need to remember all of the fun times you've had with her, and let that memory live on. She touched everyone in this group in the best way possible, and we will remember her forever. I also wanted to say that you can come to me with _anything_, I hope you know that."

Andrea finally looked at Leah, "Thank you, Leah."

"It's no problem. I'm going to go help the others, but feel free to pull me aside if you need to."

"Okay."

Leah took Prince over to Rick's tent where all of the kids were, she figured he could keep them company while the adults dealt with what was left of the camp. She stopped off at her tent to grab her backpack before heading over there.

"Morning everybody," Leah tried to sound as cheerful as possible, but she knew the kids knew what was going on.

"Morning Miss Leah," they all said in unison.

"When's the last time any of you guys ate?"

"Last night… before you came back," Carl avoided mentioning the attack.

"Okay, I have some jerky for you guys and some water." She gave them each a piece of jerky and a bottle of water. It didn't matter how hungry any of the adults were, the kids were their top priority right now.

"Now, while we're taking care of some stuff outside, I want you guys to teach Prince some new tricks. What do you guys think?" They all beamed up at her, they all loved Prince like he was their own.

"Okay, he already knows some of the basic stuff like sit and shake. But, no matter how hard _I _try, he won't roll over for the life of him. My theory is that it takes a couple of very special people to teach Prince a new trick, and I think you guys are those people. I'll give you a couple of hours to teach Prince to roll over and one of the adults will come back later to get you, okay?" They all nodded in agreement, excited at the prospect of having some alone time with Prince. As Leah stepped out of the tent, she could already here giggles coming from the kids.

With that, Leah went over to Daryl who was taking a pick axe to the people who had been bitten and to any walkers that may have been missed. He didn't look like he got a wink of sleep either.

"Hey…" Daryl stopped what he was doing to take a look at Leah.

"Hey, you feelin' any better?" Leah could hear the concern in his voice.

"Not really. I couldn't even think about eating, I didn't sleep either, what about you?"

Daryl ignored her question, "You need to eat somethin' kiddo. And you haven't slept in days."

"All I had were nightmares last night."

Daryl still looked concerned, but realized there was nothing he could do about it now, "Do you wanna help me with this?"

Leah was hesitant but figured if she wore herself out enough physically, that she might be able to sleep later on. "Okay, where do you want me?"

"Just check and make sure there is brain damage, if there is, move them over there," Daryl motioned over to his pick-up.

"Sounds like a plan," Leah said solemnly.

Daryl gave her his knife to stab any bodies that may have been missed. She had gone around to a few of the uninspected corpses, most of them had brain damage, and the ones that didn't… Leah stabbed them through the temple.

Glenn and T-Dogg had gotten a fire started for all of the bodies. She had been at it for about an hour when Rick came back from trying his walkie talkie.

"She still won't move?"

"She won't even talk to us."

"I barely got two sentences out of her earlier. She needs time to mourn, but Amy _will_ come back and we all know that," Leah regretted having to split Andrea from her sister so soon. Everyone had their own way of grieving and Andrea wasn't done grieving Amy.

"She's been there all night. What do we do?"

"We can't just leave Amy like that. We need to deal with it, same as the others," Shane stated flatly. They all knew he was right, but there was a certain way it needed to be handled.

"I'll tell her how it is."

Before Leah could object, Rick had already started walking toward Andrea. Only to be met with a gun in his face, to which he slowly backed away with his hands up in surrender.

Daryl had decided to join the conversation, "Ya'll can't be serious? You're gonna let that girl hamstring us? The dead girl's a time bomb."

"Well what do you suggest?"

"Take the shot. Clean in the brain from here. Hell, I can hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance."

"Daryl…" Leah had to admit that she was a little disappointed to hear him say that, she knew he was above that.

"No. For God's sake, let her be."

They all exchanged glances, not sure how to best handle to situation. Daryl spat at the ground before stalking off. _Great, he's angry again. He should be part Hulk with this many mood swings._

Leah continued to ponder how best to approach Andrea when she heard Glenn yelling, realizing that was the first time she had ever heard her friend raise his voice like that.

"We don't burn them! We bury them."

Daryl and Morales started dragging the man across camp, shortly followed by an outburst from the redneck.

"Reap what you sew!"

"Shut up!"

"Ya'll left my brother for dead! You had this coming!"

Leah shook her head, her job was not getting easier today. She knew better than to go after Daryl, sometimes it was just better to let him work through it on his own.

"A walker got him. A walker bit Jim!"

Everyone started to walk towards Jim, surrounding him on all sides. He looked like a cowering puppy looking at everyone, afraid they might hurt him.

"Show it to us. Show it to us," Daryl demanded.

Jim grabbed for a shovel behind him, desperate to defend himself if it came to that. T-Dogg grabbed his arms from behind, making him drop the shovel.

"I'm okay. I'm okay."

Daryl lifted up his shirt to inspect the wound. Leah looked at Jim in pity, she was truly afraid of what this man was about to go through.

Jim was saying it to himself more so than to the group, "I'm okay, I'm okay." Everyone knew he was far from okay.

Jacqui and Leah sat Jim down on a tool box while the others gathered to decide what this man's fate was going to be.

"No one is going to hurt you Jim, not on my watch." Jim gave her a weak smile in response.

"I say we put a pick axe in his head, and the dead girl's so we can be done with it," Daryl was being particularly callous today.

"Is that what you'd want if it were you?"

"Yeah, and I'd thank ya while you did it." Leah didn't even want that thought in her head, they would cross that bridge if they came to it.

"I hate to say it, and I never thought I would. But maybe Daryl's right," Dale contended. Leah did a double take at the man's words.

"Jim's not a monster, Dale. Or some rabid dog," Rick spat.

"I'm not saying… suggesting-"

"He's a sick, sick man. We start down that road, where do we draw the line," Lori was trying to calm her husband down.

"The line's pretty clear, zero tolerance for walkers, or to the bit."

Rick was pleading with everyone now, "What if we can get him help? I heard the CDC was working on a cure."

"I heard that too, heard a lot of things before the world went to hell," Shane debated.

"What if the CDC is still up and running?"

"That is a stretch right there."

"Why? If there's any government, any structure left at all, they'd protect the CDC at all costs, wouldn't they? It's our best shot. Shelter, protection, rescue."

"Rick, I understand you want those things. I do too. If they exist, they're at the army base, Fort Benning."

"That's one hundred miles in the opposite direction." Leah had her doubts about Fort Benning, Leah heard that Parris Island and Fort Jackson had been taken over.

"That is right, but it's away from the hot zone. Now listen to me, if that place is operational it'll be heavily armed. We'd be safe there."

"The military were on the front lines of this thing, they were overrun. We've all seen that. The CDC is out best option and Jim's only chance."

"I'm with Rick on this one. Even Parris Island… the freaking Marines, got overrun."

"You go looking for Aspirin, do what you need to do. Somebody's gotta have some balls and take care of this damn problem!" Leah's heart skipped a beat when she saw Rick pull a gun to Daryl's head for the second time in twenty-four hours.

"We don't kill the living!"

"It's funny. Coming from a man that just put a gun to my head."

Shane stepped in between the two, "We may disagree on some things, but not on this. You put it down."

Daryl put the axe down with a grunt and stalked off again. This guy PMS'd like something else.

Everyone started to disperse once again to finish with the rest of the bodies, and Leah decided to go talk to Daryl, she found him watching Carol drive a pick axe into her husband's head. Leah came up to Daryl silently, putting her hand on his arm pulling him away from Carol's weeping figure. Leah almost gagged at the sound of the metal hitting bone, but Leah knew that some things were best to do alone. Carol needed to do that, so that she knew she was free of Ed's overpowering force once and for all.

Leah and Daryl started walking towards Daryl's truck, "Do you mind telling me what those outbursts were about?"

"There's nothin' to tell," Daryl said gruffly.

"Don't do that to me Daryl, don't shut me out." Leah wouldn't stand for Daryl turning into his brother, pushing people away and always being angry.

"If they hadn't have done that ta Merle, he would be back in camp now."

"Daryl, I know you are going through a tough time and I know you think they had this coming. But would you honestly wish what you're feeling right now on anybody else. Andrea just lost her sister. Merle could still be alive and out there somewhere looking for you, but Andrea knows her sister is never coming back."

"What are ya sayin'?" his voice was gentler now, but he still wouldn't meet Leah's gaze.

"What I'm saying is that we are all going through tough times, and telling these people that they deserved their losses is not fair. They had no control over Merle and they were doing their best to keep everyone safe. What happened after that was cruel, and I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy."

"Thanks for remindin' me," Daryl's voice was thick with sarcasm.

"I just want to remind you that pointing fingers isn't going to help find your brother. But, if you ever need to vent I'm always here for you, okay sweetie?" Leah looked at him gently, waiting for his response.

Daryl sighed, "You're right, kiddo. I'm sorry."

"It's okay, need help loading these bodies?"

"Yup…" Leah smiled, she was glad to have her friend back. The smile quickly faded when they started picking up the corpses and putting them in the back of Daryl's truck.

"This is how I knew I never wanted to become a mortician."

"You afraid of a dead body when the world's full of them now?"

"We're starting the banter early today. But you and I both know that it's different when it's for self-defense."

"Okay, fine."

Leah and Daryl were placing the last body in the bed of the truck when they heard a gunshot ring through the air. They both looked in the direction of Amy and Andrea, and Leah's heart sank as she realized that they had one more person to bring up to the quarry.

Leah brought a blanket over to Andrea who was looking down at her sister's body.

"Andrea, it's time. We're going to give Amy the burial she deserves, okay?"

"Okay," Andrea said solemnly.

Leah placed the blanket over Amy's body and grabbed her feet while Andrea lifted her shoulders. They walked over to Daryl's truck slowly, so as not to disturb Amy too much. They placed Amy in the bed and watched Daryl drive up to the cliff overlooking the quarry, the rest of the camp came into procession behind them.

Leah just overheard the tail end of a conversation that Daryl was having with Rick and Shane, "… the Chinaman gets all emotional, says it's not the thing to do. And we just follow him along? These people need to know who the hell's in charge here. What the rules are."

"There are no rules."

"Well that's a problem. We haven't had one minute to hold onto anything of our old selves. We need time to mourn and we need to bury our dead. That's what people do."

…

They had put all of the bodies into their graves, Amy was the last to be lowered. Andrea was struggling with her sister until Dale offered to help. They all started walking back toward camp, Leah was bringing up the back of the group with Andrea when she noticed that Rick and Lori had stopped walking. She saw Carl leaving the couple to talk and decided she would escort Carl back to camp.

He started walking up to her and she could see tears running down his face. Leah put a comforting hand around the child's shoulders, she couldn't imagine growing up in a world like this. Carl would never have the same worry-free childhood that the adults had grown up in, and that's why Leah felt obligated to bring as much happiness into it as she could. She let Prince be with the kids as much as possible because she knew that they needed him a lot more than her.

They were all back at the camp and Leah decided it was time for the kids to show her what they taught Prince. She gathered all of them and decided to make it a little show, having all of the kids present what they taught her companion. To her surprise they had taught him how to roll over, stay, and high five. She gave all of the kids a hug at their accomplishments and sent them off to be with their parents. Leah still didn't have much of an appetite but she couldn't ignore her stomach pain any longer. Everyone decided to have an early dinner, eating the last of their canned food. She managed to get one can of fruit down and a bottle of water before she couldn't stomach any more.

Leah saw Rick, Shane and Dale leave to sweep the woods and figured that it would be a good time to talk to Jim. It wasn't looking good for him and they all knew that, she wanted to see if he wanted to get anything off of his chest.

"Jim, honey?" She got a partial groan in response followed by a fit of coughing.

"You wouldn't have any Robitussin by chance?"

"Sorry, I'm fresh out." Leah took a seat next to him, sneaking a quick glance at the pot splattered with blood.

He gave a labored smile at the woman looking at him.

"Dale told me about what happened while I was in Atlanta. He told me what happened to your family and I'm here to say that I am truly sorry… and to see if you want to talk about it." Her offer was met with a painful gaze from Jim, she could see the sorrow in his eyes.

"I never thought that I would out live my sons or my wife. I knew that if they left me, I wouldn't be able to live. I mean, I would live, but it would be an empty life. Any life I had without them wouldn't be worth living. Then the dead rose and took them away, right in front of me. I didn't think the world would be so unforgiving," he stopped to cough into the pot, blood coming out with every heave. Leah let him continue though, she knew better than most that it was always helpful to say what you were thinking.

"Since I lost my family a couple of weeks ago, I've been turning this thought over and over in my head; what could I have possibly done to deserve this hell?"

"Jim, no one ever deserves to go through the pain that you've undergone, especially you. Family is the most precious thing that we have in this world and it is always a tragedy when we lose it. I've always been an independent person, but my family was my rock throughout my life. And although I haven't known you for very long, I can tell you were a great father and husband."

"I hope so…" he started coughing again and Leah decided it was time to turn the conversation into a more positive one.

"Do you have a picture?"

Jim reached for a small square behind the pot and handed it to Leah, "You're sons are very handsome and you're wife is a knock out. I bet she had all the boys in town chasing after her," Leah handed the picture back to Jim so he could look at it.

Leah urged him to tell her funny stories about his wife and kids. He told her about their wedding day and how his first son broke his arm when he was seven. She laughed with Jim, but soon his coughing was almost a continuous presence and she bowed out to let him rest.

She walked out of the RV to find the group gathered around the fire pit, she found an empty folding chair in front of where Daryl was standing and took a seat.

"I've uh… I've been thinking about Rick's plan. Look, there are no guarantees, either way. I'll be the first one to admit that. I've known this man a long time, and I trust his instincts. I say the most important thing here is to stay together, so for those of you that agree, we leave first thing in the morning. Okay?"

Leah looked around to Glenn, T-Dogg, Daryl and the rest of the group, it looked like they were all in the same boat, but Leah noticed that Morales had a thinking face on.

After that, they all went in their separate directions to start packing up. Leah went to the back of her Land Rover to get her empty duffle bag. Leah admitted that it felt weird to pack everything up after being there for so long. After she packed everything, her entire life now fit into two duffle bags. She carefully placed the picture of her and her parents in the middle of all of her clothes, and she put her iPod in her back pocket. She rolled up her sleeping bag and took her pillow over to Daryl's tent, she really didn't want to be alone after the events of the previous night.

It had grown dark out and she saw Daryl cleaning his crossbow in the back of his truck, that thing was like a limb to him. She had to admit that she was a little nervous approaching Daryl with the intention of spending the night with him, it wasn't a line they had ever crossed in the couple of weeks they had known each other.

"Hey, do you mind if I spend the night here? I really don't want to be alone…"

Daryl was wearing an unreadable expression and Leah thought that he would turn her down for a second, until he patted the seat next to him, "Of course, kiddo."

Leah was relieved to hear his approval, she felt safe around him and it couldn't hurt to have be a little cautious in this world. He silently handed her a rag and a couple of arrows for her to clean while he continued to clean his bow.

They fell into a comfortable silence, both cleaning the weapons until they sparkled. Leah decided to break the silence, "Want to listen to a song?"

"Okay," he gave Leah a confused look until she pulled out her iPod. She handed him one ear bud as she scrolled through her playlists.

"Music has always been therapeutic to me, and that's a luxury to have right now. This song was a lullaby my dad used to sing to me when I couldn't sleep," she pressed play as her and Daryl laid down on the bed of the truck to look up at the stars.

_Sleep_

_Sleep tonight_

_And may your dreams_

_Be realized_

_If the thunder cloud_

_Passes rain_

_So let it rain, let it rain_

_Rain on him_

It was the most calming song Leah knew and she lost herself in the sky for a moment as she thought about the events of the past couple of days. She cleared her throat and took the ear bud from Daryl, his silence was a little unnerving.

"Ya should try and get some sleep. I'll be right her if you need me, kiddo."

Leah nodded, the exhaustion was taking over her. Prince jumped up into the truck as Leah spread out her sleeping bag. As soon as Leah laid down, she immediately fell into a dreamless sleep.

…

Leah woke up to see Daryl lying across from her with Prince in between them. Leah was amazed at how peaceful the redneck looked, nothing could bother him while he was like that. She decided to let him sleep a little bit longer, God knows they all needed it. Much to Leah's objection, she sat up and greeted the blue morning glow around them, petting Prince between the ears. Today was the day they left for the CDC; she decided she wouldn't be taking her car, it was a gas guzzler and they needed to spare all the fuel they could get. She rolled up her sleeping bag and brought it back to her tent. She gave Prince some dog food and rolled that up too, by her estimate there was maybe enough for a week if she rationed smaller portions. She put the bag in her duffle with all of her weapons in it, the bag had just enough room to fit her tent once she took it down. She grabbed her extra fuel from her trunk and headed over to Dale.

"Dale? I figured the RV could use some extra fuel, here you go."

"You're not bringing your car?"

"No, it's not the most fuel efficient and we need the RV for the storage," as much as Leah would miss her baby, she had to be practical.

"Well, thank you Leah. That's very kind of you."

"No problem," she smiled at Dale before she headed back to take down her tent.

Leah never knew how the tent fit when she took it out of the bag, but expanded to twice its size when she was trying to put it back in. She struggled with the equipment for twenty minutes before she was able to put it in her duffle bag.

She took her belonging over to Daryl's truck, seeing that he was already done packing and loading his brother's motorcycle into the flatbed.

"Do you mind if Prince and I hitch a ride? We're good passengers, Scout's honor," Leah held up three fingers to emphasize her point.

"Yeah, no problem. As long as you don't front-seat-drive. I've always hated when people did that," the redneck chuckled at his own joke and put the kickstand down on the bike.

"Deal," Leah said with a smirk on her face. She put her duffle bags on one side of the bike and headed towards the center of camp with Prince and Daryl by her side.

"All right, listen up! Those of you who are on CB's we're on Channel 40, but let's keep the chatter down, okay? Now if you have a problem, don't have a CB, can't get a signal or anything at all just honk your horn one time and that'll stop the caravan. Any questions?"

Morales spoke up, "We're uh… we're not going," everyone was staring at Morales and his family.

"We've got family in Birmingham, we want to be with our people."

"You're gonna be on your own, you won't have anyone to watch your back."

"We're gonna take the chance. I've gotta do what's best for my family." Leah was shocked at Morales' decision, but she understood it.

"You sure?"

"We talked about it, we're sure."

"Alright, Shane?"

"Yeah." Rick pulled out a gun and some ammo for Morales to take with them. Daryl scoffed in disbelief at Shane giving away even more ammo. Leah nudged him in the ribs to get him to be quiet.

Leah walked over to Morales' family to say goodbye. She knelt down in front of the kids with Prince by her side, he was already giving the kids kisses, licking the tears off their faces. "Okay I want you kids to listen to me, if you ever get scared I want you to think of Prince, okay? If you ever feel scared I want you to think of how brave he is and how brave he would want you to be," Leah pulled them in for a hug and kissed their foreheads, "I am so proud of how brave you two have been, be safe."

Leah looked to Miranda now, tears were welling up in her eyes and Leah couldn't help the tears from coming to hers. She pulled her in a tight embrace telling her to be safe, "I hope you are reunited with your family." She finally came to Morales and gave him a bear hug, she was sad to see him go, he was a good man. She hoped their paths would cross again someday.

Everyone started heading in the direction of their vehicles, she gave her car one last pat on the hood in farewell and walked with Daryl back to his truck.

"Alright everyone, let's go. Let's move out."

Leah felt sadness grow in her heart when she saw Morales's car in her rearview mirror. But she knew they were headed in the right direction. She exchanged a glance with Daryl, they all felt something close to grief leaving the quarry. So much had happened there since the outbreak, it was their first safe haven and Leah felt she could have called it home. She was absentmindedly petting Prince's head in her lap as they drove with the windows rolled down. Leah had always loved doing that when she was a teenager, driving always managed to relax her and she loved the wind in her face.

…

They had been driving for over a day when Dale's RV broke down, the radiator "hose" was shot again. They would have gotten to Atlanta sooner but they couldn't risk taking a caravan that size onto any major highways.

"Can you jerry-rig it?"

"That's all it's been so far and now it's more duct tape than hose."

"I see something up ahead, a gas station if we're lucky."

Jacqui had been taking care of Jim for the past couple of days, she suddenly came out of the RV looking panicked, "Ya'll… Jim. It's bad. I don't think he can take much more."

"Hey Rick, you wanna hold down the fort, I'll drive up ahead. See what I can bring back."

"Yeah, I'll come with you. Give you some back up," T-Dogg volunteered.

Daryl peeked his head inside the RV to check on Jim, "He doesn't look so good, kiddo," he whispered into Leah's ear. He knew how important Jim was to her and what she had done for him. He knew she made him feel better when he was on his deathbed.

Leah was pacing back and forth with worry, glancing every so often at Prince playing with Carl and Sophia. He knew how to keep them happy, and she was thankful for that. He had been so good the past couple of days, she was glad he hadn't gotten car sick, she wondered what Daryl would have done if that happened.

Rick finally came out of the RV with a grave look on his face, "He doesn't want to go on to the CDC. It's what he said he wants."

"And he's lucid?" Leah knew that Carol had grown close to Jim as well, but no one was closer to him than Jacqui. Leah could only imagine how hard it was for Jacqui to here this.

"He seems to be, I would say yes," Rick pinched the bridge of his nose, the situation weighing down on him.

"Back in the camp, when I said Daryl might be right and you shut me down, you misunderstood. I would never go along with callously killing a man. I was just gonna suggest that we ask Jim what he wants. I think we have an answer," Dale was speaking so timidly Leah could just hear him.

"We just leave him here? Just take off? I'm not sure I could live with that."

"It's not your call, either one of you."

"Dale and Lori are right, if this is Jim's final wish, we need to respect it."

Rick and Shane did a fireman carry to get Jim out of the RV; they placed him under a large, shady tree and made sure he was comfortable.

Leah looked on as Shane, Jacqui, and Rick said their goodbyes. Leah pulled Jacqui into a hug before she went into the RV. Leah put a hand on Glenn's shoulder, giving it a light squeeze as she walked toward Jim.

"Hi, Jim," Leah could tell how tired he was. His face was pale and he was sweating bullets, but he looked peaceful. Leah took both of his hands in hers, "you don't need to be afraid anymore. I want you to think of your wife and kids, think about what makes you happy, okay? You're going to be with them soon." She gave his hands one final squeeze before she turned away, taking a deep breath to calm herself.

She walked back towards Daryl who gave a farewell nod to the man they were leaving behind. The whole group walked back in silence to their cars, their hearts heavy as they finally drove away.

…

They had been driving another couple of hours when they finally came up to the CDC. It didn't look promising. There were corpses littering the ground and there was no movement whatsoever near the Humvees. Leah stepped out of Daryl's truck and grabbed her two handguns from the bed of the truck and started walking next to Daryl. As they got closer to the CDC, the stench made Leah almost gag. The air was thick and heavy with the fumes and flies were polluting the rotting flesh around them.

They cautiously walked up to the front of the large building, Rick leading the way.

"Come on everybody, stay quiet. Let's go."

As they got closer and closer to the building Shane and Rick got more anxious as the bodies surrounding them grew in number.

"Shh, keep moving." Leah had her gun at the ready the entire time they were walking; any one of these bodies could be a walker waiting for its next meal.

Rick and Shane tried pulling on the door and pressing the keypad to gain access to the building, all to no avail. Shane banged on the door hurriedly trying to get out of harm's way as fast as possible.

"There's nobody here," T-Dogg was speaking the truth that nobody wanted to hear.

"Then why are these shutters down?"

Leah heard Prince growl, she turned to investigate and saw a walker heading towards them. Daryl noticed it at the same time she did, "Walkers!" His announcement caused the kids to start crying and everyone started to panic.

Daryl shot it with his crossbow, "You led us into a graveyard!"

"I made a call!"

"It was the wrong damn call!"

Leah pulled on Daryl's arm, silently telling him to calm down. Shane was fed up with Daryl's yelling, "Shut up! You hear me? Shut up!" Leah moved her hand to Daryl's shoulder now, the last thing the needed was to start a wrestling match.

"Rick this is a dead end, you hear me? No blame."

"Shane's right, we can't be this close to the city after dark."

"Fort Benning, Rick. Still an option," Shane argued. Leah was beginning to have her doubts about anything being safe.

"On what? No food, no fuel, that's a hundred miles."

"One-twenty five, I checked the map."

Leah could hear Daryl cocking his gun in the background, "Forget Fort Benning, we need answers tonight."

Rick was trying to keep his family calm as well as the others, "We'll think of something."

Everyone started running back to the car when Rick caught their attention, "The camera, it moved."

"You imagined it," Dale reasoned. Carol and both kids were crying now, if they got any louder they would draw the entire city in on themselves.

"It moved, it moved."

"Look around at this place man, it's dead. It's dead!" Rick banged on the door loudly, trying to get the attention of anyone who might be listening.

"I know you're in there! I know you can hear me! Please! We're desperate, we have women and children! No food, hardly any gas! You're killing us! YOU'RE KILLING US!" More and more walkers were emerging with every word Rick said.

Then Leah heard a shutter slide up and a blinding light shined on all of them. They all stood still, stunned into place as a safe haven was revealed to them.

**A/N: Sorry again that this took so long to update! I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter Next chapter there will be a SUPER cute moment between Daryl and Leah and we get to see her badass side come out again YAY! Stay tuned I love getting story followers and favorites, reviews inspire me to keep writing… Till next time lovelies 3**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: HI everyone! In this chapter, Daryl is really OOC (but in a good way! I promise), he is only that way with Leah and it is necessary for their relationship. I had a lot of fun writing this chapter (even though it is split up again)! As always, thank you for all of the positive feedback, you guys are why I do this and you inspire me to keep writing! Love you!**

**Anyways, onto the next!**

Chapter 6 (Part 1) – Is There Anybody Out There?

It took a few seconds for Leah's eyes to adjust to the light but once they did, she only saw an empty, brightly-lit room. The group slowly walked in, guns raised, not knowing what to expect.

"Daryl and Leah, bring up the back," they did as they were told and everything looked clear.

"Hello?" Rick called out. Their savior had not revealed themselves yet.

They all tensed up at the sound of cocked gun, responding by aiming their own. A single man was looking at them, gun raised.

"Anybody infected?" The man called out.

"One of our group was… he didn't make it." The group continued to stare down their host.

"Why are you here? What do you want?"

"A chance," Rick responded.

"That's asking an awful lot these days."

"I know."

The man looked over everyone in the group, seeing their terrified expressions, finally allowing them sanctuary, "You all submit to a blood test. That's the price of admission."

"We can do that," Rick agreed.

The man lowered his gun finally, "You got stuff to bring in you do it now, once that door closes it stays closed."

They all ran out to their cars, grabbing everything they would need. Leah grabbed Prince's food and stuffed it into the duffle bag with her clothes, she left her other duffle bag with the tent in it but grabbed all the ammo and her bow and arrows.

Dale and T-Dogg brought up the back, making sure everyone got in okay.

"VI, seal the main entrance. Kill the power up here."

"Rick Grimes," Rick introduced himself to the man.

"Dr. Edwin Jenner," the man stated, hesitant to take Rick's hand.

He led them to an elevator and they all crammed in, Leah took a space next to Daryl. An awkward silence filled the long elevator ride, but Leah was surprised to see Daryl was the first to speak.

"Doctors always go around packing heat like that?"

"Well, there were plenty left lying around, I familiarized myself. But you look harmless enough, except you," he looked at Carl jokingly, "I'll have to keep my eye on you."

They all got off the elevator and were being led down a long hallway, none of them sure what to expect to be inside the facility.

"Are we underground?" Carol questioned.

"You claustrophobic?"

"A little," Carol replied shortly.

"Try not to think about it," the doctor dismissed.

Leah gave Daryl a wary glance, which he returned, she didn't like how quiet it was down there.

"VI, turn the lights on in the big room," the lights were turned on to reveal a center area full of computers… but no people.

"Welcome to Zone Five," Jenner started walking towards the center of the room.

"Where is everyone? The other doctors, the staff?" Rick asked the question that everybody had on their minds.

"I'm it, it's just me here," Jenner stated flatly.

"What about the person you were speaking with? VI?"

"VI! Say hello to our guests, tell them 'welcome'."

_Hello, guests. Welcome._

"I'm all that's left, I'm sorry," Leah did not like the sound of that, how could one man be working on a cure for the entire world?

After a moment they were all lead into a room adjacent to the main room to get their blood samples. Carl and Sophia went first with Carol and Lori, followed by Rick, Shane, Dale, and T-Dogg. Leah was in the middle of getting hers taken when Jenner decided to make conversation, "And what did you do before all this?"

The question was harmless enough and Leah figured it would make the time go faster, "I was a grief counselor."

"Doctor or?"

"Yes, I had my own practice," she didn't understand the sudden fascination with her resume.

"Very impressive… all done," Leah gave him a quick smile as he placed the bandage on her arm.

Daryl, Glenn, and Jacqui were the next to get theirs taken. Andrea was the last to go and was the only one with complications.

Jenner gave her Andrea a concerned look when she almost fell over, "She hasn't eaten in days. None of us have," Jacqui explained.

…

Jenner led them to a kitchen and started boiling water for pasta. Leah decided to make herself useful and heat up some sauce. Daryl leaned himself against the counter, watching her stir the sauce as everyone else was seated.

"You know how to cook too? You're multi-talented," he joked.

"A broke college kid can only afford so much take out. That, and I pretty much grew up in my kitchen. Whenever I came home from school I would do my homework on the kitchen table while my parents made dinner. We would tell each other how our days went and watch the dog scour the floor for any scraps. That was always my favorite part of the day," Leah trailed off as memories flooded her. She concentrated on stirring before she got emotional in front of everybody.

During Daryl and Leah's conversation, Dale had apparently found a liquor cabinet and took out a few bottles of wine and a bottle of Southern Comfort for Daryl.

Glenn helped Leah and Daryl serve the pasta to everyone, laughter filling the room already. Leah realized it was the first chance they had gotten since the outbreak to truly relax and enjoy each other's company.

"You know in Italy children have a little bit of wine with dinner, and in France," Dale said while handing a glass of wine to Lori.

She covered Carl's glass with her hand, "Well, when Carl is in Italy or France he can have some then."

"What's it gonna hurt? Come on, come on," Rick egged his wife.

Lori relented and allowed Dale to pour a small amount into Carl's glass, everyone was silent as they watched for the child's reaction.

"There you are young lad." Carl's expression was priceless as he tasted the red alcohol. Wine was an acquired taste that Leah never got; she had always preferred hard liquor, there were more flavor options with vodka or rum.

"That's my boy, that's my boy," Lori poured the remaining wine into her own glass.

Leah was sitting on the counter with Daryl, enjoying watching everyone have fun. Then Daryl got up from the counter with the bottle of SoCo in his hands, walking over to Glenn.

"Stick to soda pop there, bud," Shane joked.

"Not you Glenn!"

"What?" Glenn looked around nervously, his eyes landed on Leah hoping she would know what the redneck was up to, she just shrugged in response, curious to see what Daryl had planned for her friend.

"You're drinking little man, I want to see how red your face can get," a mischievous smirk was twisting on Daryl's face as he poured some of the liquor into Shane's glass.

Rick noticed that Jenner wasn't partaking in the festivities and decided to have him join in the fun, "It seems to me we haven't thanked our host properly."

"He is more than just our host!"

Everyone raised their glass, "Here here!"

"Booyah!" Leah figured out that Daryl was a happy drunk, which she was glad to see. Being happy was something that happened few and far between nowadays.

Leah noticed that Jenner still wore a somber expression despite Rick's efforts to cheer him up.

"So when are you gonna tell us what the hell happened here Doc?" Shane cut everyone's laughter off.

Daryl walked back over to Leah with an annoyed expression on his face, she rolled her eyes at Shane. He really knew how to kill a mood, they were just able to escape reality and there he was bringing it back to their attention.

"All the other doctors, they're supposed to be figuring out what happened, where are they?"

"We're celebrating Shane, we don't need to do this now."

"Whoa, wait a second, this is why we're here right? It was your move, to find out all the answers. Instead we found him," Shane pointed a finger at Jenner, "we found one man, why?"

Jenner finally joined the conversation, "Well, when things got bad a lot of people just left, went off to be with their families. And when things got worse, when the military cordon got overrun, the rest bolted."

"Every last one?" Leah didn't like the cocky look Shane was wearing when he asked that.

"No. Many couldn't face walking out the door. They opted-out. There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time."

Leah shifted on the counter, silently wondering if Carl and Sophia were old enough to understand what suicide meant. It was a scary thought, the one place that was supposed to be helping the world had given up, leaving kids like Carl and Sophia to fend for themselves in a living hell.

"You didn't leave, why?" Andrea questioned.

"I just kept working, hoping to do some good," Leah could understand and respect that.

"Dude, you are such a buzzkill man," Glenn pointedly looking at Shane. Leah wanted to high-five him in that moment, someone needed to say it.

Dinner had successfully ended on that happy note and Jenner led them to long hallway with rooms on either side. Leah and Daryl brought up the back of the group.

"Most of the facilities powered down, including housing, so you'll have to make due here. The couches are comfortable, but there are cots in storage if you like. There's a rec room down the hall that you kids might enjoy, but don't plug in the video games okay? Or anything that draws power. Same applies," Jenner was looking at everyone now, "if you shower, go easy on the hot water." Jenner left them to settle in for the night.

"Hot water?"

"That's what the man said," T-Dogg and everyone in the group had huge smiles plastered on their faces. Leah looked excitedly at Daryl, wondering if she heard Jenner correctly. Everyone practically ran for their rooms, eager to be clean again. Leah and Daryl nearly tripped over Prince in the hurry to get to their rooms, both across the hall from each other.

Leah flicked the light on and saw that the room was furnished with a sofa, a coffee table and a work desk. She figured that these rooms and the housing that Jenner mentioned earlier were in case of quarantines for the employees.

Leah placed her bag on the sofa and pulled out her pajamas. She made her way to the bathroom; it was stocked with shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and fresh towels were hanging above the toilet.

She turned the shower on, keeping the water warm but not too hot, she quickly undressed and hopped in. She couldn't help herself but laugh when she felt the water running over her body, it was amazing how warm, running water could make you feel human again. She let the water run over her sore muscles for about five minutes before she finally put shampoo in her hair. Leah scrubbed her hair and scalp for about ten minutes, she massaged the conditioner into the ends of her hair and scrubbed herself with the body wash until she was almost raw, wanting every last bit of dirt and blood off of her.

She reluctantly stepped out of the shower and dried off. She changed into a loose tank top and yoga pants, wanting to be as physically comfortable as possible. She combed her hair and put it in a high ponytail and stepped into her room to give Prince his dinner and a large bowl of water. After Prince had finished she called him back into the bathroom for his own bath, he was starting to smell like a horse's rear end and she had no doubt that he wanted to be clean too.

Prince fussed a little getting into the shower but once he felt the cold water on his fur, he calmed down and let Leah shampoo him thoroughly. Leah guarded herself with a towel as he shook himself out and started playing with him as she dried him off.

Once Leah was satisfied that they were both clean, she ventured down to the rec room to find herself a book to read. Her hand was on the door knob when she heard, what sounded like Lori, struggling with someone. It wasn't until she heard Loris scream that she decided to intervene.

Leah was horrified to see Lori, scared out of her wits, and Shane standing across from each other. She noticed that Shane had three angry red marks on his neck and Lori was breathing heavily. Leah thought on her feet, desperate to get Lori out of there, "Carl was asking for you, Lori."

"Thanks, Leah," Lori started walking toward Leah, her face still stricken with terror.

Leah dismissed Shane, "Good night, Shane."

Leah led Lori to her room and pulled her inside, she didn't want to be crossing paths with Shane again tonight. Lori broke down into tears as soon as they were out of earshot. Leah pulled her into a hug until she stopped crying, "You're okay now, Lori, you're okay now." She could feel the brunette nod into her shoulder and decided it was time to get Lori to bed.

"Lori, look at me," Leah's eyes met Lori's red-rimmed ones, "let's go take you to Carl, okay?"

"Okay," she said meekly.

They walked in silence until they got to Lori's room, Leah all the while on high alert for Shane. When she was satisfied that he was nowhere near them, she opened the door and stood in the doorway with Lori.

"IF you need _anything_ I will be in the kitchen, okay? I will send Rick your way if I see him. Try and get some sleep in the meantime," Leah was trying to reassure Lori the best she could.

"I'm so sorry for what I said back at the camp, about you going to get Merle. I don't know where that came from," Lori apologized.

"That's okay Lori, you were worried about your husband. I don't blame you for snapping, I did too. We all have and we have every reason to. Just go be with Carl and get some sleep," Leah repeated.

"Thank you," Lori hugged Leah one last time before she ducked into her room to get some rest. Leah decided that she deserved a drink and went into the kitchen to see if Daryl left any Southern Comfort for her.

Leah looked for a clean glass as Prince settled down on the floor, while she didn't find and SoCo, she did find an unopened bottle of Jack Daniel's, "Jackpot!" The CDC bought quality liquor, she would give them that much.

Leah sat cross-legged on the counter and poured herself a glass, silently toasting her parents and their safety. She took a sip and felt the liquor burn down her throat, spreading warmth throughout her belly. She started absent-mindedly running her index finger over the rim of the glass, reminiscing her childhood and her college years. She thought of how much she loved her family and her friends, and how she would give anything to see any one of them again.

She poured herself a second glass, listening to the silence and the peace. Leah had always liked living by herself; while they were times she wished she had a roommate, she always loved being able to have alone time to just sit quietly and think, especially after long days in her practice.

As if on cue, she heard heavy footsteps coming from behind her. She whipped her head around, scared that it was Shane, but breathing a sigh of relief when she saw a very drunk Daryl leaning against the doorway for support. Her head swirled a little at the sudden motion but she ignored it.

"Hey kiddo," Daryl mumbled, lumbering over to lean against the counter.

"Hey," she noticed the nearly empty bottle of Southern Comfort in his hand, "so that's where that went, I was curious."

"It's kept me good company over the years, I see your friend Jack has joined the party," he motioned to the bottle next to her.

"The only men I trust at a party are Jack, Jim, and Jose," Leah joked as she began to pour herself a third glass.

"Very true, what do ya want to toast to?" Daryl was raising his bottle.

"You first," Leah was curious about his answer.

"To Merle," Daryl took a long swig for his brother. While she was still mad at Merle, she hoped for his sake and for Daryl's that he was okay.

"To my parents," she admitted that it felt good to toast her parents out loud, when she said it to herself, it's almost like it didn't have any meaning.

It was a while before they said anything, but Daryl finally broke the silence with the last question Leah would expect from him, "Back in Atlanta, when you said you knew how I felt, what did ya mean?"

Leah set her glass down and thought about her words carefully before she said them, "I meant that I didn't know where my parents were either. As far as I know they could be five miles away or five hundred, and I would have no way of knowing. They could be one of those _things_ and there is nothing I can do about it," Leah could feel the tears welling up in her eyes at that last truth.

Daryl stepped in front of Leah, hobbling a little as he did so. "Hey, Leah?" She looked up at him, their faces were inches away from each other.

He put his hands on her cheeks, brushing away the tears with his thumb, "If they're anythin' like you, I'm sure they are just fine," his eyes were boring into hers, just to emphasize his point.

"How can you know that?" She really wanted to believe him, but it was hard to, after everything they had seen.

"I don't," he stated simply.

Leah looked down at her hands, more tears falling at the scariness of uncertainty.

"But it's like ya said, I know exactly how ya feel. We're in this together, kiddo," Leah could feel Daryl put his forehead to hers. She placed her hands on his forearms, letting him know that she was there for him too, both taking comfort in each other's presence.

Leah didn't know how long they were standing there, it felt like hours. Her tears finally subsided and she decided it was time to turn the conversation in a happier direction.

She pulled herself from Daryl and looked at him with a smile on her face, "Wanna play a game?"

Curiosity was written all over his face, "What did ya have in mind?"

"I feel like I don't know you that well and I'm too tired for twenty questions, so how about five?"

"There's not much to know, but okay," he walked over to the table with his bottle in hand.

Leah got down from the counter, wavering a little when her bare feet hit the floor, "We'll start off simple, where did you grow up?"

"In a shit-hole town in north Georgia, I left as soon as I could and drifted with Merle, finding work wherever it was."

"Okay, I grew up in Florida. I moved to North Carolina after I graduated and have lived there ever since. What type of work did you do?"

"Mechanic mainly, some construction…" he trailed off, taking a sip of his drink.

"Well, like I said the second night in camp I was a grief counselor," she took longer sip of her drink as she remembered some of the tougher patients she had, "what's your favorite color?"

"Green," he stated simply, "what about yours?"

"Blue," she replied.

"Why?"

"I've always liked the fact that blue can be calming in one shade and rich or intimidating in another. Why is green your favorite color?"

"I told ya I practically grew up in the forest, I always feel at home when I'm surrounded by green," he took another long swig from his drink, wanting to forget memories that were being resurfaced.

"Okay, last question. I've asked most of them, so this one's all you," Leah finished off her third glass while Daryl was thinking about his question.

It took a moment before Daryl asked a question that had been weighing on his mind for a while, "Why do ya only cry in front of me?"

Leah was a bit taken aback by his question and she took a moment to form her answer, not liking the memories that came with it, "Because you're my best friend and I trust you. Whenever I was practicing I learned that you can't cry at the stories you're told, no matter how devastating. It was my job to be professional and be the shoulder to cry on, not need a shoulder to cry on. I would have to put on a brave face every day until I got home to Prince, then I would cry. But it was all worth it knowing that I was making someone else feel better, knowing that they wouldn't have to go through it alone. My friends would try and comfort me in the beginning, but we knew that they would never truly know how I felt, so eventually they stopped trying to comfort me and just distracted me. On really bad days they would always be able to come up with a fool-proof plan on how to make me feel better."

Daryl stared at her in silence, wondering how this tiny girl, who he just saw break in front of him, could be so tough at the same time.

The game wasn't over yet and Leah decided to turn the table back on the redneck, "Why do you only ever talk to me?"

"Because you were the first person who wanted to get to know me and stayed long enough to listen," Daryl opened up.

Leah looked at him, not with pity, but with appreciation, "Well I'm honored that you let me in."

They were both brought back to reality by Prince's snoring, who had up until that point been completely silent. Leah realized how heavy her eyelids were and stood to put her glass in the sink. Daryl did the same, stumbling the whole ten feet, bumping into Leah once he finally got to the counter.

"Come on, sweetie. Let's take you to your room," Leah was tipsy as well but she was stable enough for the both of them. Prince woke up at the movement and followed them at a distance.

She draped Daryl's arm over her shoulder for leverage and held his hand as they walked back to their rooms. It may have been the alcohol, but Leah almost melted at how amazing Daryl smelled. They got to Daryl's room and Leah flicked the light switch on, not wanting to cause either of them injury as they stumbled to the sofa.

Leah was able to maneuver Daryl onto the sofa into a relatively comfortable position, she silently laughed at the way the redneck was snuggling into the couch. She grabbed the blanket on the night stand and draped it over his sleeping figure.

Daryl regained consciousness just long enough to say good night, "Night kiddo."

"Night, sweetie," Leah could hear Daryl's light snores as she closed to door to his room and crossed the hall to her own.

Leah left the door open a crack, letting the light from the hallway illuminate her room. She decided she would have more room if she slept on the floor, she took some extra blankets from the closet and cushioned the floor. She lowered herself down and pulled the blankets over her, feeling Prince lay next to her and put his head on her stomach.

Leah pulled out her iPod from the bag next to her head, scrolling through the playlist (which mostly looked like hieroglyphics) until she found the song she was looking for. She pressed play and let the melody fill her head. She had always liked this song, although it only had one line for lyrics, the guitar at the end always left her feeling hopeful.

_Is there anybody out there?_

_Is there anybody out there?_

_Is there anybody out there?_

_Is there anybody out there?_

Leah turned the device off and quickly drifted off with the quiet noise of the air conditioner lulling her to sleep.

**A/N: So what did you guys think? Reviews are always appreciated and encouraged. I should have the second half of the chapter up in a couple of hours since I already have most of it written. Till next time lovelies (insert heart icon) X3**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Hi all! As promised, here is the second part of the chapter, we do get to see more of Leah's badass side and I personally love writing it! Let me guys know what you think, I love reading reviews and they inspire me to keep writing and always make my day when I get them :D **

**Onto the next and enjoy!**

Chapter 6 (Part 2) – Free Bird

"Wake up kiddo!" Daryl yelled.

Leah snapped out of bed and opened her eyes to the most blinding light she had ever seen.

"Ow! Why would you do that?" It wasn't until after Leah's eyes adjusted that she felt her splitting headache.

"Got a little hangover?" Daryl laughed at her pain.

"A little hangover? I curse the day alcohol was invented. Damn," Leah was rubbing her eyes in an attempt to alleviate her migraine. She slowly got up, her back not agreeing to having slept on the floor the previous night, cracking in about ten different places as she stretched.

"You're telling me that you don't have the slightest hangover?" Leah looked at him in complete disbelief, he had been tipsy last night and now he was fine?

"Course I do, I just had a chance to get used to it. Just don't talk too loud," Leah saw him rubbing his temple.

"Prince, speak!" The dog barked as loud as he could and made Daryl wince at the sudden change in volume.

"Ha ha, serves you right," it was Leah's turn to laugh at Daryl's pain. She slowly got up from her makeshift bed and fed Prince his breakfast and gave him some water from the sink.

She walked over to Daryl and they headed to the kitchen to get some breakfast, "Now that we've both had our fun, good morning," Leah said gently, trying not to disturb the stabbing pain she felt through her temple.

"Mornin'," Daryl said quietly.

"Remember how I said that the only men I trusted at a party were Jack, Jim, and Jose?"

"Yeah," Daryl remembered everything from last night, especially the way Leah opened up to him and him to her.

"We always seem to have a love-hate relationship," Leah laughed at her own joke, earning a chuckle from Daryl as well.

They both slowly walked into the kitchen, it looked like they were one of the last ones to arrive. Leah saw T-Dogg was covering the food, and Rick had a bottle of aspirin. Leah knew all too well that aspirin and water were like gifts from the gods for a hangover.

"Don't ever ever ever let me drink again," Leah wondered what had happened to Glenn, apparently he hadn't had the best night either.

Leah and Daryl walked over the T-Dogg and took a couple of strips of bacon and a couple scoops of eggs, resuming their places on the counter from the night before.

"Hey," Shane greeted everyone, Leah didn't make eye contact with him, fully remembering the events from the previous night.

"Hey, do you feel as bad as I do?" Rick addressed his friend.

"Worse," Leah bet he did. She looked over to Lori and saw she was focused on her plate.

"What the hell happened to you?" T-Dogg noticed the three red scratches on his neck.

"Must have done it in my sleep," Shane dismissed.

"I've never seen you do that before," Rick was concerned for his friend.

"Me neither, not like me at all," Shane seemed to stare daggers at Lori, she just looked back down at her plate. Shane gave a fleeting glance to Leah, she only returned it with daggers of her own. She had respected Shane and he was walking on very thin ice with her now.

"What the hell was that?" Daryl whispered to Leah, his voice was thick with concern and suspicion.

"I'll tell you later," Leah whispered back, trying not to draw attention to herself. She knew that Shane would try to confront her about what she saw and she didn't need her telling Daryl to make him even more upset.

Jenner walked in and greeted everyone, receiving 'good mornings' in return.

"Doc, I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing in the morning," Dale said.

"But you will anyway," Jenner responded humorlessly.

Andrea turned to face Jenner, "We didn't come here for the eggs." Leah knew as well as everybody else that they needed answers, even clues as to what the hell happened.

…

After everyone finished their breakfast, they were led to the large room they saw last night, questions burning through all of them.

"Give me a playback of TS-19," Jenner said to the virtual intelligence.

_Playback of TS-19,_ the screen in the center of the room lit up and Leah suddenly felt like she was in WarGames.

They all walked towards the center of the room, unsure of what they were about to witness, "Few people have ever seen this, very few."

Leah immediately recognized the blue and purple image on the screen as a brain, she had seen a lot in her time as a Psychology major.

"Is that a brain?" Carl's eyes lit up at the sight on the screen.

"An extraordinary one… not that it matters in the end," Jenner responded. "Take us in for EIV."

_Enhanced Internal View. _The monitor zoomed in on the brain until the synapses were clear.

"What are all those lights?"

"That's a person's life. Experiences. Memories. It's everything. Somewhere in all that organic wiring, in all those ripples of light… is you. The thing that makes you unique and human."

"You don't make sense, ever?" Daryl was still a little confused on the subject.

"How about we let our psychologist explain it," Jenner motioned toward Leah, she didn't like how all of the attention was on her now.

"Synapses, those lights, are the message carriers of the brain. Everything you feel, think, smell, see, and do is sent through your brain by them." Leah suddenly remembered back to her very first day of psychology class, the very first thing they had learned was the wiring of the brain.

"They determine everything a person does from the moment of birth to the moment of death," Jenner added.

"Death? That's what this is, a vigil?"

"Yes, or rather the playback of the vigil."

Andrea spoke this time, "This person died? Who?"

"Test Subject Nineteen. Someone who was bitten and infected and volunteered to have us record the process. VI, scan forward to the first event."

_Scanning to first event._

The screen zoomed out on the brain once again and showed a black substance intertwining with the tissues of the brain.

"What is that?" Glenn sounded horrified, none of them had ever seen anything like it.

"It invades the brain like meningitis. The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shut down… then the major organs. Then death." The body was convulsing, gasping for its last breath and then the black substance completely dominated the brain. "Everything you were or ever will be, gone."

Leah noticed that Andrea had started crying, everyone was getting emotional, the memories still fresh in their brains.

"Is that what happened to Jim?" Sophia's sweet voice filled the entire room.

"Yes," Carol didn't bother hiding the truth from her child, they were old enough to know. They couldn't afford not to.

Leah remembered how Jim hadn't taken a gun and he was one of them by now, wandering the earth trying to satisfy its cannibalistic hunger.

Jenner looked at Andrea, who was clearly crying now, "She lost somebody two days ago, her sister," Lori explained.

"I lost somebody too, I know how devastating it is," Jenner tried to comfort Andrea, "scan to the second event."

_Scanning to second event_.

"The resurrection times vary wildly. We have reports of it happening in as little as three minutes, the longest we heard of was eight hours. In the case of this patient it was two hours, one minute, seven seconds." Leah noticed how melancholy Jenner was talking about all of this, if she had to guess, he knew the patient on the screen.

Leah stared in wonder as a red light was emerging at the brain stem, sending flickers of light into the brain.

"It restarts the brain?"

"No, just the brain stem. Basically it gets them up and moving."

Rick spoke up again, "But they're not alive?"

"You tell me," Jenner motioned to the screen.

"It's nothing like before, most of that brain is dark."

"Dark, lifeless, dead. The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part. That doesn't come back, the _you _part. Just a shell driven by mindless instinct."

Leah's eyes widened as she was the outline of a gun come onto the screen, blowing a hole through the person's skull. Leah looked over at Daryl, worry written all over her face.

"Oh god, what was that?"

"He shot his patient in the head, didn't you?"

Jenner ignored Andrea's question, "VI, power down the main screen and work stations."

_Powering down the main screen and work stations._

Andrea was on the verge of tears again, "You have no idea what it is, do you?"

"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal-"

"Or the wrath of God?" Jacqui interrupted.

"There is that…" Jenner said curtly.

"Somebody must know something. Somebody. Somewhere."

"There are others right? Other facilities?"

"There may be some, people like me."

"But you don't know? How can you not know?" Rick looked at the man in disbelief.

"It all went down. Communications, directives, all of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month."

"So it's not just here? There's nothing left anywhere, that's what you're really saying, right?" Leah could see Andrea was getting less and less hopeful by the second.

"Jesus."

"Man, I'm gonna get shit-faced drunk, again."

"Holy shit," Leah put her hands on her knees, suddenly out of breath. She couldn't believe that no other facilities in the entire world had survived. But then again, this was the headquarters for all of the CDC, the others probably weren't as nearly as well stocked as this one was.

"Doctor Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question. But, that clock. It's counting down, what happens at zero?" Dale brought their attention to a digital clock on the wall, it had about an hour until it ran out.

"The basement generators, they run out of fuel."

"And then?" Jenner ignored Rick and walked out of the room. "VI, what happens when the power runs out?"

_When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur._

Rick, Shane, Glenn, and T-Dogg decided to go down to the basement and see what the fuel situation was like while the rest of the group headed back to their rooms.

Leah decided to hang out in Daryl's room, they balanced each other out and he always had a way of making her feel better. They had been sitting there for about twenty minutes when they noticed the air conditioning and all the lights turned off.

Daryl and Leah went into the hallway to investigate and so had the others. Their questions were soon answered when Jenner appeared in a lab coat and tie behind them. He snatched the bottle of Southern Comfort out of Daryl's hands and took a swig, quickening his pace as he ran into a wall of questions.

"Hey what's going on? Why is everything turning off?"

"Energy use is being prioritized," he stated flatly.

"Air isn't a priority? And lights?" Dale questioned.

"It's not up to me. Zone Five is shutting itself down," Jenner was talking to himself now more than the group. They were right on his heels though, all starting to get concerned.

"Hey! What the hell's that mean? Hey man I'm talking to you! What do you mean it's shutting itself down? How can a building do anything?"

"You'd be surprised."

"Jenner, I think we would all appreciate it if you could elaborate for us a little here," Leah kept her voice as level as she could.

"Rick?" Lori leaned over the balcony looking for her husband.

They all followed Jenner down the stairwell, desperate for some answers.

"Jenner, what's happening?"

"The system is dropping all non-essential uses of power. It's designed to keep the computers running until the last possible second. It starts as we approach the half-hour mark. Right on schedule." Jenner took another long swig from the bottle and handed it back to Daryl. Everyone's eyes were glued onto the back of Jenner's head.

"It was the French," he explained.

"What?" Nobody knew what he meant by that.

"They were that last ones to hold out as far as I know. While our people were bolting out the doors and committed suicide in the hallways, they stayed in the labs until the end. They thought they were close to a solution."

"What happened?"

"Same thing that's happening here. No power grid. Ran out of juice," Leah did not appreciate the tongue-in-cheek tone that Jenner was using. "The world runs on fossil fuel, how stupid is that?"

"Let me tell you something-"

"The hell with it Shane, I don't even care. Lori! Everybody! Grab your things! We're getting out of here. NOW!" Leah nodded in response, grateful to get out of that room. She turned on her heel but was stopped in her tracks by an alarm going off.

The screen at the center of the room lit up with the digital clock counting down. _Thirty minutes to decontamination._ Leah was really starting to hate the sound of VI's voice.

"Everybody, ya'll heard Rick. Grab your stuff and let's go."

Leah was just at the stairs when every entrance was sealed off by thick, metal doors.

"Did you just lock us in?! He just locked us in!" Glenn yelled. Leah could feel her heart drop to her feet, he was caging them up like animals. Just when she thought he couldn't get any crazier, Jenner started speaking into a computer monitor.

Leah realized a second too late that Daryl had snapped. He started charging on Jenner, "You son of a bitch! You locked us in here?!"

"Shane!" He was able to stop Daryl from strangling Jenner, if only by a second. It took Shane and T-Dogg to keep Daryl off of Jenner, Leah went over to him to try and calm him down, even if only a little bit.

Rick tried to talk some sense into Jenner, "Jenner, open that door now." Leah had heard Rick use that voice before and it meant that he was far angrier than he let on.

"There's no point. The top side is locked down, the emergency exits are sealed."

"Well open the damn things."

"That's not something I control the computers do. I told you, once that front door closed it wouldn't open again, you heard me say that."

"And how the fuck is that fair, you're gonna get all lawyer on us now?!" Leah was beyond pissed at Jenner for twisting his own words, they didn't know what they were walking into at the time.

"It's better this way."

"What is? What happens in twenty-eight minutes? What happens in twenty-eight minutes?!" Rick and Shane descended on the doctor, sick and tired of his silence.

"Do you know what this place is? We protected the public from very nasty stuff! Weaponized Small Pox! Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country! Stuff you don't want getting out! Ever!" Leah retracted a little at the doctor's sudden outburst, subconsciously grabbing Daryl's arm for security.

The doctor composed himself again, "In the event of a catastrophic power failure, a terrorist attack for example. HIT's are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out."

"HIT's?"

"VI, define."

_HIT's, high-impulse thermo baric explosives consist of a two-stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear. The vacuum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen between five thousand and six thousand degrees and is used when the greatest loss of life and damage to structures is desired._

"It sets the air on fire. No pain. An end to sorrow, grief, regret. Everything."

Leah looked at Daryl, her entire body was stricken with fear and disbelief, her hand still on Daryl's arm. Without even thinking about it, he pulled her into a hug. He promised her that she would be safe as long as she was with him and he would keep that promise. He hated seeing that look in her eyes.

Leah buried her face into Daryl's chest, feeling his strong arms wrap around her protectively. The last thing she expected to die from in an apocalypse was a bomb. She focused on Daryl's heartbeat in her ear, trying to calm herself down, it was beating a hundred times a minute, and she knew hers was too.

They stood like that for a couple of minutes absorbing the devastating information. Daryl's anger got the best of him and he broke away from Leah, picked up the bottle of liquor and threw it at the wall with a grunt, "Open the damn door!"

Shane's fury was boiling over as well, he grabbed an axe and ran up the walkway, "Out of my way!" He started to chop at the door so hard that sparks flew off of it. T-Dogg threw Daryl and axe too, both men venting on the thick metal.

Leah heard the kids starting to cry, clinging to their mother's in their last moments. Leah bent down to the ground, just taking notice of Prince whining at her side. She sat against one of the monitors and pulled him into her lap, nuzzling into his fur and kissing he velvety ears.

"You should have left well enough alone, it would have been so much easier."

"Easier for who?"

"All of you, you know what's out there. A short brutal life and an agonizing death. Your sister, what was her name?"

"Amy," Leah could see Andrea breaking at the mention of her sister.

"Amy," Jenner repeated. "You know what this does. You've seen it. Is that really what you want for your wife and son?" Jenner looked at Rick directly now.

"I don't. want. this."

Leah stood up, anger overtaking her, "I can't believe you, you're using the death of her sister to try and justify the genocide you're committing? If we can survive, we will."

Shane came up to them panting, "Can't make a dent."

"Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher."

"Well your head ain't!" Daryl was charging the doctor for the second time. Dale and Rick ran up to him while Leah was able to get the axe out of his grip.

"Back up! Back up!" Leah handed the axe to T-Dogg, giving a warning look to Daryl.

"You do want this. Last night you said it was only a matter of time before everyone you loved was dead." Rick looked to his disbelieving wife and son, apology in his eyes.

"What you really said that? After all your big talk?"

"I had to keep the hope alive didn't I?"

"There is no hope, there never was."

"There's always hope. Maybe it won't be you, maybe not here but somebody. Somewhere."

Andrea spoke up again, "What part of everything's gone do you not understand?"

"Listen to your friend, she gets it. This is what takes us down, this is our extinction event."

Leah had had enough of Mister Debbie Downer, "You need to shut the fuck up! Who are you to decide how we live?"

"This isn't right, you can't just keep us here!"

Jenner tried to reason with Carol, "One tiny moment, a millisecond, no pain."

"My daughter doesn't deserve to die like this!"

Leah was about to lose it, how could this guy look into these kids' faces knowing he was going to kill them, "You may be suicidal, you may have given up. But you sure as hell aren't allowed to take us down with you!"

"Wouldn't it be kinder, more compassionate to just hold your loved ones and wait for the clock to run down?"

Leah lost it, her fist collided with his face with a satisfying sound of bone breaking, "Not if we can beat the clock you son of a bitch!" Jenner wiped some blood dripping from his nose, staring at her with wide eyes. She shook out her hand and walked towards Daryl and Glenn, just in time too because Shane cocked his shot gun and put it right up to Jenner's face.

"Rick stay out of my way! I'm gonna blow your head off! Do you hear me?!"

"Brother, brother, this is not the way. You do this and we'll never get out of here!"

"Shane, you listen to him!" Lori was standing in front of Carl, shielding him from an armed, livid Shane.

"He dies, we all-," Shane started screaming at the top of his lungs and shot at several computer monitors before Rick could disarm him.

Rick stood over Shane, ready to hit him with the butt of the gun if necessary, "Are you done now? Are you done?"

"Yeah, I guess we all are." Rick ignored him and handed T-Dogg the shotgun, he seemed to be the only one in the room with a level head.

Rick looked around at everyone, they weren't any closer to being let out of the facility, "I think you're lying."

"What?"

"I think you're lying, about no hope. If that were true you'd have bolted with the rest or taken the easy way out. You didn't. You chose the hard path, why?"

"It doesn't matter."

"It does matter, it always matters. You stayed when others ran, why?"

"Not because I wanted to, I made a promise," Jenner was standing toe-to-toe with Rick now, "to her, my wife."

"Test Subject Nineteen was your wife." Everything was falling into place, the reason Jenner was so flat and emotionless through all of this. He thought there was no hope but he would keep his promise if it was the last thing he did.

"She begged me to keep going as long as I could," Leah turned around to see Daryl chopping at the doors again, he wasn't going down without a fight, "how could I say no? She was dying. It should have been me on that table. It wouldn't have mattered to anybody, she was a loss to the world. She ran this place, I just worked here. In our field, she was an Einstein. Me, I'm just Edwin Jenner. She could have done something about this, not me."

"Your wife didn't have a choice, you do. That's all we want. A choice, a chance."

"Let us keep trying as long as we can," Lori begged, still holding Carl close.

Jenner finally gave in, "I told you, top side is locked down. I can't open those," he went over to a key pad and punched in a code, lowering the doors. Freeing everybody.

"Come on!" Daryl urged.

"Come on everyone! Let's go! We have four minutes!"

Leah started pulling on Glenn and Carl's hands, "Come on guys! Let's move it!"

"Come on Jacqui!"

"No, I'm staying! I'm staying sweetie." Leah froze in her place, staring at the woman she thought of as her second mother.

"That's insane!"

"No, it's completely sane. For the first time in a long time. I'm not ending up like Jim and Amy," Everyone looked at the woman, shock running through all of them, "there's no time to argue, and no point. Not if you want to get out. Just get out." Jacqui shoved T-Dogg, not wanting him to die because of her.

Leah started walking toward Jacqui, she could feel Rick tug on her arm, but she ignored it. She wanted to say goodbye to her friend.

"Jacqui?" Leah was like a deer in the headlights.

"Just go honey," Jacqui placed her hands on either side of Leah's face.

Leah embraced the woman one last time, "Goodbye."

Jacqui broke the hug and looked at her lovingly, urging her to run as fast as she could. Leah felt her heart breaking as she felt Daryl pull her from the woman, "Come on, kiddo. We gotta go."

Leah turned on her heel and started sprinting alongside Daryl, Prince running in front of them. They all stopped in their rooms to grab their things and bolted up the stairs to the entrance.

They got to the entrance, Glenn and T-Dogg slamming into the doors hoping to open them. T-Dogg tried pressing the emergency button on the pad, but to no avail. Daryl and Shane chopped at the glass, barely leaving a scratch. Then T-Dogg tried throwing a chair it, desperate to get out. Leah was dripping sweat, the adrenaline pumping through her veins, she was growing more and more anxious by the second.

"Dogg, get down! Get down!" Shane cocked his shotgun and stood at point blank range, the shells made an indent but the glass didn't shatter.

"The glass won't break?!"

Carol was ruffling through her backpack, "Rick, I have something that might help!"

"Carol, I don't think a nail file's gonna do it," Leah glared at Shane, knowing exactly where Carol was going. "Your first morning at camp, when Leah and I washed your uniform, we found this in your pocket," she held out the hand grenade to Rick.

"Carol, you're a genius!"

"Look out!"

Leah wrapped herself around Prince's body and covering his ears, preparing herself for the explosion. She could feel Daryl wrap his arms around her and Prince, covering her back from the impact. She heard Rick pull the pin, "Oh shi-,"

Leah felt a wave of heat and heard the glass shatter. They were free, they all hopped out the window and bolted for the cars. Leah pulled her handgun out and started shooting every walker she saw, they all started flocking at the sound of the grenade. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Daryl behead one and Shane shooting others.

Leah, Prince, and Daryl hopped into the cab of his truck. Leah froze in place, relief flooding her as she saw two figures emerge from the building, Dale and Andrea. She had never been so happy to see two people before. Lori stuck her head out from the RV to warn the pair running towards them, "Get down! Get down!"

Leah laid down on Prince and Daryl covered Leah, trying to shield themselves as much as possible for what was coming next. Leah heard a deafening explosion, surges of heat coming from the building. The force from the explosion made the car shake, causing her and Daryl to tense up, tightening her grip on Prince.

Leah raised her head, the major duration of the explosion was over. Daryl released her and sat up, both looking at each other as they caught their breath. Prince looked at the remains of the building and whined, knowing that all of them had not made it out.

Daryl started his truck as the caravan started moving, they needed to be as far away from the city as possible now. There was nothing left of the CDC now except for a burning pit, a tower of smoke rising into the air. Leah's ears were still ringing from the detonation, only one face popping into her head, Jacqui. The person that had treated her like a daughter, was gone from this world. Leah was somewhat comforted by the fact that Jacqui was at peace now, she was with Amy and Jim in heaven. Although Leah wondered if there was such a thing anymore.

She pulled Prince into her lap and started thinking of the lyrics to one song.

_If I leave here tomorrow_

_Would you still remember me?_

_For I must be traveling on now_

_'Cause there's too many places I've got to see._

_But if I stayed here with you, girl,_

_Things just couldn't be the same._

_'Cause I'm as free as a bird now,_

_And this bird you cannot change_

She would always remember Jacqui, Amy, and Jim. She would remember everyone she came across in this life.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Hi all! Just a warning that there is some sensitive subject matter in this chapter, so if that bothers you just skip this section. **

Chapter 7 – Angel

"Leah? Leah, wake up!"

Leah raised her head off the door of Daryl's truck, blinking into the sunlight, "What?"

"Hey kiddo, we're stoppin' for the night. The RV ran out of gas. We found a car along the way that had some canned food in it," Daryl handed her a bottle of water and a can of pears, "I remember you liked 'em."

"Thanks Daryl," Leah set the can down on the dashboard and pulled her hair into a messy bun, Prince still in her lap. The memories of that morning came flooding back to her, she could notice a difference in the group without Jacqui, there was an emptiness now.

Leah saw that everybody was scattered around a few of the cars, T-Dogg was siphoning fuel from his van and Shane's jeep while Dale kept watch. "How far did we get from Atlanta?"

"We're a couple of miles from I-85, we'll get there tomorrow once we get the RV going," Daryl started spooning some baked beans into his mouth, his crossbow slung over his shoulder. "You and I are on watch tonight from nine to two, then Glenn and T-Dogg will cover 'til morning."

"Okay, I doubt I'll be able to sleep anyway," Leah sipped some syrup from the pears. By the position of the sun, she guessed it was around five o'clock, "How long was I out?"

"You fell asleep around noon and it's five-thirty now."

"Still nursing the hangover I guess," Leah smiled, it was definitely a twenty-four hour process. "Want to continue our game from last night?"

Daryl gave her half a laugh, "Sure, let's keep it simple this time though."

"Deal. What's your favorite food?"

"Microwaveable mac and cheese," Daryl laughed.

Leah's eyes lit up, "Are you kidding me? I practically lived off that stuff when I was in college! Wait," Leah couldn't help herself from giggling, "Our friendship hangs in the balance of this next question. Kraft or Velveeta?"

"Kraft. No contest," Daryl chuckled.

"That, my friend, deserves a high five," Leah raised her hand to meet Daryl's.

They continued playing their game, both cleaning their weapons until they shined.

The sun was just about to set when Leah needed a break, "Okay, I really have to pee. I'll be right back."

"Here, take this just in case," Daryl handed her his bowie knife. Leah took it, a little intimidated to have a knife the size of her forearm in her hand.

She walked into a nearby tree line until she was confident she was out of sight. She put the knife on the ground next to her and relieved herself. Leah knew she would get sick of wiping herself with leaves fairly quickly.

She had just zipped up her pants when she felt a hand clasp over her mouth. Panic surging through her, she tried to rip the hand from her mouth, pulling on the man's forearm, desperately lunging for the knife that was two feet away from her.

Her legs were kicked out from underneath her, sending her into the forest floor. She flailed her arm out, the knife was inches from her grasp now. She was able to get her fingertip on the handle of the knife only to get a boot pinning her wrist to the ground.

Shane leaned down to get to her level, whispering into her ear, "Shh, shh. There's that fighter I saw back at the CDC." Leah turned her head away from his voice, not wanting to see his face.

Leah was trying to wriggle from underneath his body weight, but he was easily twice her size, she was fighting a losing battle. Shane grabbed her wrist from underneath his boot and brought it behind her back.

"I'm gonna take my hand from your mouth now, and don't ya even think about screaming," the threat was eminent in his voice.

Tears began to form in her eyes but she wasn't going down without a fight. As soon as her left hand was free from holding Shane's arm she stretched for her only weapon.

"Hey now," Shane violently ripped her arm from reaching for the knife, trapping it behind her back as well. A sharp pain was coming from her left shoulder, he definitely did some damage. But she had more important things to worry about, like the bear of a man crushing her. The tears were threatening to spill over as she heard Shane pull his handcuffs from his belt, wanting to restrain her even further. Leah knew that trying to escape from Shane's iron grip now was useless, he was a police officer and had probably done this dozens of times.

A million things were running through Leah's mind, but they all stopped when she heard Shane undoing his belt, "Ya know, I never really noticed how sexy ya were until I saw ya in your little tank top. And Lori's not puttin' out since Rick got back, so I figured you and I could give it a shot," Shane whispered in her ear in between labored breaths. Leah could almost hear the evil grin that was undoubtedly on Shane's face as he spoke, "Now we don't have a lot of time before that dumb redneck comes to look for ya."

He wrenched her pants from her hips just enough so her backside was exposed. She had never felt so vulnerable in her whole life. He started thrusting into her, causing her to yelp out in pain. Shane only responded by gripping her hips tighter, probably leaving bruises.

Leah tried to block out Shane grunting in her ear, she tried to ignore the feeling of him inside of her but she couldn't do it. He was everywhere.

With each thrust Leah shut down more and more until her mind was far away from that forest. She tried to think of things that would calm her down and her thoughts wandered to her porch in North Carolina. She remembered watching the sun set over the mountains after a long days of paperwork, it was the only place she felt completely at peace.

She was suddenly snapped back to reality when she felt him pull out of her, buckling his pants and unlocking the handcuffs, her arms going limp by her sides.

Leah felt the pressure of his body weight come off of her, but she didn't dare move. She couldn't move.

Shane's boots came into view, "Ya tell anyone what ya saw at the CDC or what just happened and I'll kill you and your boyfriend." Leah stayed quiet, nodding her head in response, silent sobs wracking her body.

She watched Shane saunter away like nothing had transpired, she wanted to kill him then and there, but he had gotten away. He'd broken her… not that she would let him know that, or anyone. Leah laid on the forest floor until her tears finally subsided. She pulled herself up, fixing her pants on her hips and brushing herself off.

She suddenly knew how terrified Lori had been the previous night, and she wished that she had been there to come to her rescue. But she wasn't. Leah had to save herself, she had to pull herself together and act like nothing had happened, just like Lori had to.

Leah wiped the tears from her face, hoping her eyes weren't too red. She combed out her hair with her fingers, making sure to get any leaves out of it. She did her best to put her hair in its original style but it was nearly impossible to try and do it one-handed. Leah could already tell her shoulder was getting worse, she could barely lift it above her head. She grabbed the knife and stuck it in the side of her boot. Leah slowly walked back to the road, making sure to take deep breaths before she faced Daryl, who was sure to have questions about her extended absence.

She came into view of the cars, she had never been happier to see Daryl's blue pick-up truck. Both he and Prince were staring at her as she walked up to them, "What the hell, Leah? Where'd ya go?"

Leah wanted to run into his arms right then and there and just cry. But she couldn't, so she put on the best smile she could muster, "Sorry, I got a little lost on the way back. I don't know how you don't get lost all the time."

"What am I gonna do with you, kiddo? But ya get used to it. I can show you how to navigate through the woods sometime if ya want," Daryl offered, completely oblivious to what had just happened.

Leah saw Shane staring her down out of the corner of her eye, "Uh… yeah that'd be great. Here's your knife back by the way." Daryl took it and put it back on his belt.

"Ya didn't have to use it did ya?"

_YES!_ Leah screamed in her head, "No, everything's clear. We should be safe here for the night."

…

Leah and Daryl fell into comfortable conversation, playing games like "Would you rather" and "Two truths and a lie". It had gotten dark out and Daryl said it was their turn to keep watch, letting Dale get some rest.

Leah grabbed her handguns from the back of the truck and climbed to the top of the RV with some difficulty. Shane had done even more damage that Leah anticipated, forcing her to climb up the ladder with one hand. Leah guessed that her shoulder was dislocated. Great.

She and Daryl settled in for the night, sitting cross-legged, leaning their backs against each other for support. Leah set her handguns in her lap and stared into the darkness, not wanting to be alone in her thoughts but not coming up with anything to say for conversation.

Everyone in the camp had gone to sleep around eleven o'clock, leaving Daryl and Leah to themselves.

"What was that look between you and Shane back at the CDC?" Daryl blurted out.

Leah's entire body tensed at the mention of his name. She wanted so badly to tell him, and it was killing her that she couldn't, but she had to keep him safe. She couldn't imagine not having him around to talk to or to comfort her when she needed it. And she needed him now more than anything and because of Shane, she couldn't have him. She couldn't have him tell her that everything was going to be okay or that he would always be there to protect her.

Fresh tears came to her eyes as she forced herself to lie to her best friend, "It's nothing. Everything's fine." Leah was glad that Daryl couldn't look at her in that moment, because one look would be all he needed to know what she had been through.

"Clearly it ain't fine, kiddo. I've never seen you look that angry before." Despite Daryl using his nickname for her, Leah could hear the hurt in his voice. She had opened up to him like she never had to anyone, not even twenty-four hours ago, and now she was keeping secrets. Hearing the woundedness in his voice only twisted the knife deeper into her side, causing her to have a whole new wave of pain and guilt wash over her.

Leah leaned her head back so it was against Daryl's neck, "It's stupid Daryl. There's nothing to worry about." It _was_ stupid, Leah had walked in on Shane's drunken escapade and now he was pissed at her for it.

Daryl sighed, deciding to believe her, "Okay. I'm always here. Ya know that right?"

He was just tormenting her now, "I know, sweetie. Thank you."

"No problem, kiddo," Daryl nudged Leah's back, letting her know that he let the matter go… for now.

…

The rest of the watch had been so uneventful that Leah zoned out, getting lost in her thoughts, which was the last place she wanted to be. She was only aware of Glenn and T-Dogg's presence when she saw the pair standing in front of her.

Glenn waved a hand in front of her face, "Leah? Leah, are you in there?"

"Huh? Oh, sorry. I was just thinking," Leah got up, the movement caused shooting pain in her arm, she really needed to get it back in place. The tightness around her sleeve didn't go unnoticed, she just hoped it didn't swell up enough for people to start asking questions.

"No problem. Goodnight," Glenn took her spot on the roof, getting comfortable for his shift. Leah silently laughed that it was the middle of the night and Glenn was still wearing his baseball hat.

"Goodnight guys, see you in a couple of hours," Leah climbed down the ladder first, wanting to avoid Daryl noticing her injury.

They walked back to the pick-up in silence, Prince was already at their side, jumping up on them in greeting. Daryl lowered his bike to the ground so they could spread out in the back. They both rolled out their sleeping bags, eager to get some rest.

Leah decided it would be best if she laid on her back, she certainly didn't want to aggravate her shoulder more than necessary. She kicked off her boots and tucked herself in, pulling Prince into her side. Prince looked at her with huge eyes, almost looking like he was worried about her. She had always wondered what made dogs so intuitive and sensitive to what happened around them. But she didn't really care, she was just glad Prince was there with her. She kissed the top of his head and started petting his side, loving that he was like a giant pillow.

"Goodnight, Daryl" Leah yawned.

"Night, kiddo."

Daryl immediately started snoring, she was completely alone now. She looked at the stars, reveling in their beauty. Leah got lost in her thoughts again, tears springing up from her eyes as she wondered what she had done to deserve what Shane had done to her. In a twisted kind of way, she was glad that if it had to have happened to a woman in the camp, that it happened her. Lori had already had an extremely close encounter with Shane, Carol just got out of an abusive relationship, and Andrea had just lost her sister and was suicidal. Leah knew that those women were tough beyond belief, but dealing with a person like Shane is another matter entirely.

Leah didn't know how long she had been laying there, but eventually she just cried herself to sleep.

_There's always some reason_

_To feel not good enough_

_And it's hard at the end of the day_

_I need some distraction_

_Oh beautiful release_

_Memory seeps from my veins_

_Let me be empty_

_Oh, and weightless and maybe_

_I'll find some peace tonight_

_In the arms of the angel_

_Fly away from here_

_From this dark cold hotel room_

_And the endlessness that you fear_

_You are pulled from the wreckage_

_Of your silent reverie_

_You're in the arms of the angel_

_May you find some comfort here_

**A/N: So what did you guys think? Will Leah be able to recover? Do you think Daryl will find out what happened? Let me know! I love all the continued support :) Remember to follow/favorite/review… Till next time lovelies!**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Sorry this took so long to update, I had a busy week of exams and what not :/ I absolutely loved the response I got on the last chapter :) You guys are amazing and continue to inspire me [sending virtual hugs to all of you ;)]**

**Without further ado… Enjoy the next chapter **

Chapter 8 Part 1– Up Around the Bend

**Daryl's POV**

Daryl woke up to the blue morning glow, Prince and Leah fast asleep by his side. Leah still had bags underneath her eyes, he was sure he did too, but she looked exhausted. It was like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders. She had been different since the CDC, and he knew Jacqui's death had affected her, he just didn't figure it would affect her this much.

He sat there for a couple of minutes looking at Leah; focusing on the steady rise and fall of her chest, the peaceful look on her face, the way her ebony hair flowed across the pillow. His eyes traveled downward to a bit of exposed skin near Leah's hip, noticing the tattoo he had gotten a glimpse of a few days earlier. Curiosity got the better of him as he tried to make out the words that were written on her creamy skin. The only words he could read were "pay my respects to grace and virtue." Daryl's brow furrowed in concern as his eyes landed on two bruises that covered a good part of her tattoo. Where had she gotten those?

Daryl was brought back to reality when Leah shifted in her sleep. Seeing her lay next to him, Daryl had to admit that it was a sight he could get used to, but he doubted that she felt the same way. Why would a girl like her ever like an asshole like him?

Daryl shoved the thought out of his head and grabbed his trusty crossbow as he hopped out of the truck. He figured he might as well get some hunting in before they left for Fort Benning. He decided he would take Prince with him, maybe the dog could prove useful while hunting.

Daryl called the dog over and walked to the RV, "Hey guys, I'm going hunting. Be back in an hour."

"Okay, don't go too far," Glenn replied after exchanging a glance with T-Dogg. Daryl scoffed at their worry for him. He could take care of himself.

With that, he and Prince set off into the nearby woods. Daryl figured he could bag a couple of squirrels by the time he got back. He had been walking for a couple of minutes when he saw his first squirrel. He pulled the trigger and got the animal right between the eyes. He pulled his bolt from the tree and stuffed it in his pocket. That's when he noticed the leaves had been disturbed beneath his feet.

By the way the leaves were spread, it looked like there had been quite a struggle between two animals. Prince had noticed the leaves as well and started sniffing the grass. The dog started whimpering as he dug his nose deeper into the leaves, but there wasn't any evidence of footprints. He probably just smelled a deer or something. Daryl just wrote it off as two animals fooling around and walked further into the forest, Prince trotting in front of him the whole way.

Daryl didn't find any other squirrels, but the sun had risen and he decided he needed to head back to the group.

…

**Leah's POV**

Leah found herself in the middle of some trees, they seemed familiar but she couldn't quite place them. She heard some birds chirping nearby and saw some wildflowers growing underneath a nearby tree. It was scenes like this that made her really love nature, it was so quiet and relaxing.

She suddenly heard a far off voice cut through the trees. It sounded like it was saying her name but she couldn't make it out. She headed further and further into the forest, trying to find the owner of the voice. She stopped running when the voice was replaced by a sharp pain going through her entire arm.

"Leah," the voice was right behind her now, it nearly made her jump out of her skin. She whipped around only to be met with Shane right in her face.

Leah's eyes snapped open to the morning light. She still felt the same sharp pain from her dream in her shoulder and flinched from the contact. She looked at the hand on her shoulder and followed the man's arm all the way up to his face.

Shane was staring right at her, "Good mornin', Leah."

He was wearing the same cocky grin that Leah had imagined on him the night before, he squeezed her shoulder even harder, knowing just how much pain she was in.

The only thing that ran through Leah's find was defending herself. She didn't have any weapons on her but she knew Daryl kept a handgun underneath his pillow. She pulled the gun out from underneath the pillow and backed up the other side of the truck bed, pointing the weapon straight in between his eyes. Her breathing picked up as the adrenaline coursed through her, she couldn't believe Shane had the audacity to approach her after what happened. It was only then that Leah became aware that Daryl and Prince were not in the truck with her.

Leah slowly lowered the weapon, realizing that a couple of people in the camp were staring at her and Shane. Her shoulder was screaming in pain from the sudden movement and weight of the weapon.

Shane's hands were in the air, he licked his lips before speaking, making Leah internally cringe, "Didn't mean to scare you."

Leah just stared at him, trying to control her breathing. She didn't have any idea what to say to the sick man standing in front of her.

"Be ready to leave in a half hour. We'll be at I-85 around noon."

The only thing Leah had managed to say was, "Okay." Leah stared at him until he was out of sight, still stunned that he had come up to her. She hoped that he would get his just reward, because as long as he was around no one would know what he had done. Leah placed Daryl's gun as she had found it underneath his pillow, deciding she needed to change out of her clothes.

Leah hadn't had the greatest night's sleep, she woke up nearly every hour because of nightmares. It wasn't enough that she couldn't escape Shane during the day, now he had to haunt her in her sleep too. The memories from the previous night flooded her mind and she suddenly felt like she needed a shower. Of course they wouldn't be given such a luxury as long as they were traveling. She took a change of clothes to the RV and asked Dale if she could change in his bathroom. The man graciously agreed. Leah hated the fact that they had run out of toilet paper, maybe if they hadn't, nothing would have happened to her. Leah couldn't pin the whole thing on toilet paper though, Shane would have gotten her alone eventually if he really wanted to.

…

Every muscle in Leah's body protested while she changed. Leah inspected her body, bruises littered her hip bones and she saw two on her back where Shane's thumbs had been. She also saw bruises forming on her wrists from the handcuffs. Daryl would definitely notice those, he was smart and would know that she was hiding something from him.

She ignored the pain with every movement, she had always had a pretty high tolerance for it. But her shoulder was something else, she knew she had to ask someone to help her get it back in place but she didn't know who. Daryl and Glenn would worry about her and start asking questions. Carol and Lori would give her all sorts of unwanted attention and get all motherly. While she respected and admired Rick, asking someone you barely knew to help put your shoulder back in place was an odd request. The same went with T-Dogg. And Andrea had been distant toward everyone since Amy's death. Leah sincerely wished that she would take her up on her offer to talk, but she wouldn't go somewhere she wasn't wanted. So that only left one person, Dale.

She felt a little bit better after she had changed, she didn't want any of what had happened on her body. She felt violated, like she could never be clean again. Leah pulled her hair up into a ponytail and looked at herself in the mirror, she didn't see herself though. Sure she looked the same, but there were bags underneath her eyes she thought would never go away, and there was a difference in the way she carried herself. Leah had always been a pretty confident person, standing straight with her shoulders back. She was quiet but confident. Now her shoulders were slightly hunched and she already found herself looking at the ground wherever she walked. Truth be told, Leah hated seeing herself become weak, before all of this she never would have let anyone take advantage of her in any way.

Leah didn't even realize she was crying until she felt the tears running down her cheek. She sat herself down on the toilet trying to calm herself, but it seemed like every time she got control she lost it and broke down more and more until the sobs shook her entire frame. Leah had once told a friend that crying let the pain out and would make more room to strengthen and grow. She sincerely hoped that was true.

Leah didn't know how long she had been sitting there but it was long enough to raise Dale's concern, "Leah? You okay in there?"

Leah wiped the tears from her face and steady her breathing, trying to keep her voice as even as possible, "Yeah, Dale. I'm fine. Actually, do you have any Visine? I think my allergies are acting up."

"Sure, it's in the medicine cabinet above the sink."

"Thanks, Dale. I'll be out in a second." Leah found the little bottle and put a drop in each of her eyes, trying to cover up the fact that she had just been crying. She took a few deep breaths, zipped up her boots and unlocked the bathroom door. She found Dale sitting at the table reading, what looked to be a Stephen King type book with a picture of an eerie looking cabin on the cover.

She timidly walked up to Dale, not sure if how to best approach the subject. "Dale?"

"Yes, Leah? Did you find that Visine okay?" Dale dog-eared his place and looked up at her.

"Yeah, thanks. Um, I was hoping you could do me a favor," Leah looked gently at the man.

His brows furrowed in concern, "That depends on what it is."

"I uh… fell in the woods yesterday and I landed on my shoulder awkwardly. I think it's dislocated and I was wondering if you knew how to get it back in place."

"Well, I popped my elbow out of place when I played high school football. I'm not making any promises, but it should be the same type of concept. Let's take a look, shall we?"

Dale looked at her with one of those reassuring smiles that immediately made her feel better, it made her believe, even if only a little bit, that everything could be okay. Leah was still relieved that Dale hadn't asked any questions, she wasn't sure if she could lie to the man. She had fallen, but it was the circumstances of the fall that she wasn't sure she could keep quiet if he asked, "Thank you so much, Dale. I really appreciate it." She sat on the table and let Dale examine her shoulder.

"It's no problem. Well, it's definitely dislocated. You took one hell of a fall. Now lay down on the table so we can get the proper angle. You also might want this to bite on," he handed her a dish towel.

Leah did as she was told and bit down on the towel, mentally preparing herself for the adjustment. Dale took her hand in his and raised her arm so her elbow was bent at ninety degrees and her arm was raised off of her body.

"Okay, on three I'm going to push on your elbow," Leah nodded, "One, two, three." It was one of the most painful things Leah had ever experienced, Dale was right in giving her the towel. She might have broken a tooth if not for the cloth.

Leah took the towel out of her mouth, "Son of a bitch."

"Okay, now you're may have some bruising and swelling for a couple of days. Try and take it easy."

"Thanks again, Dale." He gave her another smile and patted her on the back as she exited the RV. Leah moved her shoulder in small circles to test its range of motion, glad to have it back. It would be a while until she could use her bow and arrows again. That made her sadder than it should have, she knew it would mean less hunts with Daryl. Leah started heading back towards Daryl's truck and saw that he was siphoning fuel from the tank, Prince was at his feet gnawing on a squirrel. Where the hell had he gone off to? Shane wouldn't have made a move if Daryl was around… would he?

Leah brushed the scary thought from her mind and focused on Daryl, "Hey, stranger. Where'd you go?" She smiled at him and bent down to give Prince a kiss on the head.

"Went huntin'. Only found one squirrel though."

"Oh," Leah focused her attention on Daryl's current activity, "I'm gonna miss this truck, it's got character." She pat the bumper of the old pick-up, some rust flaking off as she did so.

"That's just the nice way of saying that it's a piece of shit," Daryl laughed as he folded up his sleeping bag. The thing was total crap, but he would miss it. "Are you ridin' in the RV?"

The question was kind of abrupt. Leah thought about the arrangements, she knew T-Dogg and Shane were leaving behind their cars as well, which meant Shane would be in the RV. There was no way Leah was going to be in that close of a proximity to Shane for an extended period of time, "It's kind of crowded in there, and Carol's Cherokee is full. Would you mind if I rode with you on your bike?"

"Nah," Daryl looked around at everyone packing up, "Go put your stuff in the RV and we'll get goin'."

Leah noticed everyone climbing into their cars, "Okay. Come on Prince!" Leah grabbed her two duffle bags and sleeping bag, bringing them over to the RV. She had Prince lay down on the floor of the bedroom, and she was just about to exit the camper when Shane blocked her way. She waited a moment for him to move, but he didn't. Leah subconsciously folded her arms over her chest, wanting to cover as much as herself from his sight. She held her breath as she brushed past him, their bodies inches apart. She thought she had avoided the situation successfully until she felt Shane pinch her butt. The gesture made her freeze in place.

She cringed from his touch but turned to face him. His eyes were filled with dominance. He had her exactly where he wanted her, "Don't forget our little agreement. You tell anybody anything and you're gonna be seein' a whole lot more of me."

His words combined with the "gesture" made her nearly fall apart on the spot. How would she be able to forget something like that? All Shane seemed to want to do now was throw it in her face. She hated that she hadn't been able to defend herself and that he had conquered her. Leah always believed that she had been able to take care of herself, and Shane had proved her wrong. But she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of knowing what he'd done to her. As soon as she could feel tears form she turned around, desperate to get away from him and back to Daryl.

Leah blinked back the tears as she approached Daryl, she was eager to get on the road.

"Ready?" Leah could have sworn she saw a flicker of concern in Daryl's eyes. Had he noticed her tearing up?

She acted as casually as she could, "As I'll ever be, I've never been on a motorcycle before."

"Well you're in for a treat." Daryl mounted the bike and Leah followed suit. Leah felt anxious as she swung her leg over the machine. Daryl started up his bike and Leah wrapped her arms around his torso and laid her head on his back. She never really noticed how strong Daryl was. Sure she noticed his arms, practically all of his shirts had the sleeves cut off, but it wasn't until she was holding him like that did she noticed how defined his abs and back were. Leah was once again grateful that Daryl couldn't see her face because she was sure she was beet red.

They would be taking the lead on I-85, it was going to be a long day of traveling. They had over one-hundred miles to cover and Leah figured they would get there by the next day if they were lucky. They had found some cars as they left Atlanta and were able to get some fuel from them, and after draining their cars, everyone just about had a full tank. Leah couldn't help but worry about what might be lying between them and Fort Benning, they could run into more walkers, other groups, or the base may not even be there at all. They would have wasted that time and fuel traveling to a dead end. There was nothing but uncertainty in everyone's future and that terrified Leah.

Daryl started cruising along the back road and Leah suddenly knew why people loved riding motorcycles. She felt a sense of freedom with the wind blowing through her hair and the countryside passing by. She let the wind clear her head and she relaxed into Daryl, falling into a sort of meditation as the sunrise warmed her back. The Atlanta skyline growing smaller and smaller in their rearview mirrors.

_There's a place up ahead and I'm goin' just as fast as my feet can fly_

_Come away, come away if you're goin', leave the sinkin' ship behind._

_Come on the risin' wind, we're goin' up around the bend._

**A/N: Sorry there wasn't a whole lot of action in this chapter, there is more to come, I promise :) What did you guys think? How long can Leah keep the secret from Daryl? Leave me some love, you guys always make my day when you favorite/follow/review :) Until next time, lovelies.**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: So sorry it took me two weeks to update everyone, crazy weeks of tests and projects :( As always thank you for your continued support and everyone who followed/favorite/reviewed this story, you guys are absolutely AMAZING! Even though I wasn't writing, I got some big things in store for Leah and I will try to continue updating once a week :) Happy reading!**

Chapter 8 Part 2 – Here With Me

Leah was pulled out of her trance when she noticed Daryl slowing down. She looked over the redneck's shoulder to see a wall of abandoned cars and turned-over trucks. Just their luck.

"We haven't even been on the interstate for an hour." Daryl spoke over the roar of his engine.

"Shit." It was just one more headache in a world full of headaches.

Daryl looped back around when he noticed he wasn't being followed by the RV.

They pulled up to Dale's window seeing what the plan of action was, "You see a way through?" Daryl nodded and pulled up to Rick's window telling him they were going to push through the traffic as much as possible.

Daryl took the lead, leaving Leah to observe the destruction before her. Words really couldn't describe what she was seeing. So many cars were just left behind, their doors and trunks left open, the owners fleeing in desperation from the end of the world. The more gruesome scenes were of bodies decaying in the cars. So many people just giving up hope, deciding they didn't want to fight for their lives, believing that it wasn't worth the trouble.

Leah held onto Daryl a little bit tighter, wanting any kind of reassurance that he was real, that she wouldn't just become one of the bodies in the cars.

Leah nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard a screeching noise coming from behind her. She turned around and saw steam coming from the hood of the RV. The radiator hose.

Daryl stopped the bike and Leah hopped off, glad to be standing.

"I said it. Didn't I say it? A thousand times, dead in the water."

Shane glared at Leah as her and Daryl walked over, silently checking that she hadn't told anyone. Shane spoke up in his cocky tone, "Problem Dale?" Prince trotted over to where Leah was standing with Daryl and put his front paws on her hips in greeting, Daryl and Leah rubbing his ears in praise.

"Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of…" Dale drifted off as he noticed Daryl searching through the trunk of a nearby car.

"Okay, that was stupid."

"If you can't find a radiator hose here…"

"There's a whole bunch of stuff we could find."

"Food, water, clothes." Leah couldn't believe that what had happened on this highway could turn out to be a goldmine for them.

"I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start," T-Dogg chimed in.

"This is a graveyard. I don't know how I feel about this." Everyone knew Lori had a point, but they couldn't afford to ignore supplies for the sake of looking like grave robbers. The cars on this highway could end up saving their lives.

"All right ya'll, just look around and gather what you can."

Leah grabbed her extra handgun from the RV and shoved it down the back of her pants. She walked over to a nearby Prius that was clear of any bodies and looked like it had some luggage in the trunk. She started rummaging through the suitcases and the first one was mostly men's clothing. She picked out some button down shirts that looked like they would fit Daryl, god knows he needed shirts with actual sleeves.

Leah moved onto the next suitcase as Prince laid down next to her feet, panting like crazy. She made a mental note to find him a brush, before everything started she would have to comb him once a week during the summer, it just wasn't fair for him to be in heat like this.

She heard laughing in the distance and saw that Shane was taking a shower from a cooler of water. Leah couldn't help the smile forming on her face when she saw about 20 more full containers of water. Leah continued scavenging through the suitcases when she found a couple pairs of black ankle socks that she desperately needed. The current pair she was wearing already had a hole where her big toe was.

The socks were still folded and they smelled like detergent, "What the hell," Leah decided that she might as well put the socks on now and she took her boots off. She sat herself down on the bumper and slipped the socks on, she was zipping up her boots when she noticed Rick creeping towards her.

"Leah, Lori under the cars." It was then that Leah noticed a pack of about fifty walkers headed straight towards them.

Her mind was going to fight or flight mode as Leah grabbed her gun. She knew Prince couldn't crawl underneath a Prius, she wasn't even sure if she could. Leah was looking around frantically for a larger car, and her eyes landed on a Ford F-I50. She started crawling toward the truck with Prince behind her. She dove underneath the car and pulled Prince into her chest.

Prince was still panting, Leah had to clamp her hand over his snout to make his breathing quieter.

"Shh, good boy," Leah released her grip on Prince's nose when his breathing calmed down a bit. Leah looked ahead and saw the dead feet shuffling towards her, the guttural noises in the distance.

Her heart was beating harder and faster in her chest the closer the walkers got, she thought for sure they would be able to hear her underneath the car. The undead were inches away from her now, she buried her face into Prince's fur, trying to muffle the sound of her breathing.

It took a couple of seconds before Leah was able to breathe through her nose again, the moaning of the walkers still echoing in her ears. She looked around, trying to see if any of the others were nearby. She thought she saw Carol and Lori's feet and she saw Rick's boots about two cars over, where in the hell was Daryl?

Leah could only hear the blood pounding in her ears as more and more walkers scraped by. She flinched when a couple bumped into the truck, these assholes knew how to take their time. She pulled Prince closer to her, scooting her legs in from the sides of the truck.

Most of the herd had passed her now, a couple of stragglers still passing by. When the last pair of shoes left her sight, she breathed a quiet sigh of relief, they had made it out in one piece. She spoke too soon.

Leah heard Sophia crying out, her screams interrupted by the groans of a walker. Leah bolted from underneath the car and ran towards where she heard Sophia screaming. Everyone else emerging from their hiding spots as well. Leah saw Rick's shirt disappear into the woods.

Carol was completely hysterical, "Lori, there are two walkers after my baby!" Lori was trying to quiet her, not wanting to draw any walkers back to them. Without thinking Leah jumped over the railing and slid down the hill chasing after Rick, ignoring the group calling for her. She had to get Sophia, she couldn't disappoint her.

"Rick? Sophia?" Leah didn't know how long she had been running without hearing a peep, but then she ran face first into Rick.

"Rick, where's Sophia?"

"She's hiding, I drew the two walkers off and now they're following me."

Leah saw the two walkers stumbling about one hundred yards away, "What do you want me to do?"

"Okay, we'll get their attention and split them up. One for each of us. Don't go too far though, we need to be able to find each other again."

"Okay," Leah focused her attention on the walkers. She started backing away from Rick, gaining the attention of one of them by whistling. She turned on her heel and sprinted away from the corpse, Rick running a parallel line from her. She could still faintly see Rick running through the trees. Leah kept running until she was had a comfortable lead from the walker. She looked around and found a large rock and thick branch near her feet. She hid behind a tree until she heard the moans getting closer. She came out from the cover of the tree and threw the rock as hard as she could, hitting the walker square in the face. It fell backwards and Leah took that time to pounce on it and stab the thing through it's eye socket.

Leah tried to catch her breath and softly called out to Rick, she walked a little further, still calling out the man's name.

"Leah?"

"Rick?" The man looked winded and he had blood covering his shirt, she had never been so glad to see Rick in her life. "Rick are you okay?" Leah was still panting, the adrenaline was the only thing keeping her from collapsing.

"Yeah, you?"

"I'm fine. Where did you tell Sophia to hide?"

"Come on, it's this way."

Rick led Leah to a stream of sorts and walked in front of a little borough, "Sophia? It's Rick, are you in there?" No response came.

"I told her that if I didn't come back that she should head back to the interstate. I said she should keep the sun on her left shoulder."

Leah tried to hide the panic in her voice, "Okay, let's head back to the group and see if she's there."

The pair started jogging back to the highway, eager to see if the little girl made it back to her mom. They came up to the hill they chased the walkers down, greeted with anxious looks from everyone in the group.

"Where is she?" Carol's face was streaked with tears, Lori trying to keep her calm.

"I asked her to hide while I drew the walkers off, Leah ran into me then and helped me take them out. When we went back to get her and she was gone."

"My baby," Carol broke out into a new wave of sobs.

"Okay well she couldn't have gone far. We should send a small party to look for her, cover more ground," Leah spoke up.

"I can track her footprints, see which direction she ran off in."

"Okay. Shane, Glenn, Daryl, Leah, and I will look for Sophia and the rest of you stay here and gather more supplies."

"We can take Prince, he might be able to help sniff her out."

…

Rick led the group back to the creek where he had left Sophia and repeated everything he had told Leah to Shane, Daryl, and Glenn. Daryl was able to pick up some foot prints and it was decided that Shane, Glenn, and Leah would head back to camp to keep everyone busy.

Daryl walked up to Leah, "See ya later kiddo." Leah gave the redneck a quick hug, "Be careful."

"Yeah yeah," Daryl smirked as he walked in the opposite direction with Rick.

They got back to the group and explained that Rick and Daryl were doing everything they could and that they would keep looking through the cars and gathering more fuel.

Leah started searching the cars with Glenn, looking for anything that might be useful. They found a couple of bottles of water and some canned food. Putting everything into crates to be sorted later. Leah found a suitcase that looked like it belonged to a teenage girl, scoring a couple of pairs of jeans that were her size. Leah and Glenn also found some super hero t-shirts for Carl, getting into an argument over which comics were the best. Leah hated to admit it but she was kind of a nerd in college, she was in graduate school when she got into Batman and Iron Man. Besides who wouldn't want to watch good looking men be total badasses.

T-Dogg started pushing some cars into the median, and Shane fired up the Cherokee to push an SUV out of the way to make room for the RV.

"Why aren't we all out there looking? Why are we moving cars?"

"We're gonna need room to turn the RV around. Now that we have the fuel we can double back to a bypass that Glenn found."

"We're not going anywhere until my daughter gets back."

"That goes without saying," Lori reassured her.

"Rick and Daryl, they're on it, it's just a matter of time." Leah really didn't know how Shane could be so comforting one minute and so evil the next.

Leah wrapped an arm around Carol and gave her a comforting squeeze, "Daryl's the best tracker I've ever seen, Carol. He'll find her." She gave her a smile and went with T-Dogg to hot wire the cars that were too big to push.

T-Dogg showed her the steps, making sure she knew which wires were safe to spark together. Leah didn't want to ask how he knew how to do this but she didn't really care. Once she hot-wired her first car successfully, he showed her how to unlock the steering column and she drove it onto the grass.

…

The group continued to look for supplies until the sun set. There were just about to wrap everything up when Andrea confronted Dale.

"Where's my gun? You have no right to take it."

"You don't need that just now do you?"

"My father gave it to me, it's mine." Andrea was starting to sound like a four year old in Leah's opinion. Leah knew that if someone was a danger to themselves and had suicidal thoughts like Andrea had, they would be Baker-acted and put under a seventy-two hour psychiatric hold.

"I can hold onto it for you," Dale reasoned.

"Or you can give it back to me."

Shane decided to play teacher, "Everything cool?"

"No, I want my gun back."

"I don't think it's a good idea right now."

"Why not?"

Glenn stood next to Leah, watching the kids fight over a toy, "Want some popcorn? It's like watching an argument on Facebook."

Glenn tried to suppress his laugh, "Not nice." Leah couldn't help herself but laugh too, a little girl was missing and all Andrea could focus on was her gun.

"I'm not comfortable with it," Andrea scoffed at Dale's concern for her.

"The truth is, the less guns we have floating around camp the better."

"Are you turning over your weapon?" Andrea questioned Shane in disdain.

"Nah, but I'm trained in its use. That's what the rest of ya'll need is proper training. But until that time I think it's best that Dale keeps them all accounted for.

Andrea stalked off like a brat, "You mind telling me what that's about?"

"Oh god, they're back," Glenn noticed Rick, Daryl, and Prince climbing up the side of the interstate.

"You didn't find her?"

"Her trail went cold. We'll pick it up again at first light."

"You can't leave my daughter out there on her own, to spend the night alone in the woods."

"Tracking in the dark's no good. We'd just be tripping over ourselves. More people will get lost." Leah walked over to Prince and pat him on the head, with everything that happened today, he was the best dog in the world.

"But she's twelve, she can't be out there on her own," Carol looked to Rick now, "You didn't find anything?"

"I know this is hard but we're asking you not to panic. We know she was out there."

Daryl was reassuring Carol, "We tracked her for a while." Leah moved to hold Carol's hand and Prince rubbed against her legs.

Rick was speaking to the entire group now, "We have to make this an organized effort. Daryl knows the woods better than anybody, I've asked him to oversee this."

Carol noticed the dark red stains on Daryl's knees, "Is that blood?" Carol started to hyperventilate, her mind running to the worst case scenario.

"It's okay. We found a walker."

"Walker?" Leah looked at Daryl in a panic.

"There was no sign it was anywhere near Sophia," Rick was trying to regain Carol's attention.

"How can you know that?" Andrea questioned.

"We cut the son of a bitch open, made sure." Daryl's words only threw Carol into more of a tizzy.

Carol took a seat on the railing, zeroing in on Rick, "How could you just leave her out there to begin with? How could you just leave her?"

Leah knew that was a low blow for Carol, Rick was the first one to respond out of any of them.

"Those two walkers were on us. Leah and I had to draw them off, it was her best chance."

"It sounds like he didn't have a choice, Carol."

"How is she supposed to find her way back on her own, she's just a child."

Rick was kneeling in front of Carol, silently begging her for forgiveness, "It was my only option, the only choice I could make." Leah could see that Rick blamed himself for losing Sophia.

"I'm sure nobody doubts that."

"Carol, I was there. Those two walkers were fast, there was no way Rick could keep Sophia safe and take them down at the same time.

Carol wasn't budging, "My little girl got left in the woods." Leah felt guilty as well, she should have been watching Carl and Sophia, they shouldn't have been wandering these cars by themselves.

Rick started walking off, getting as far away from Carol's scorn as possible. Leah walked after him, he couldn't blame himself for trying to keep someone safe.

Leah followed Rick until they were out of ear shot from the rest of the group. Leah wondered why she was the one chasing after Rick instead of Lori, but she dismissed the thought from her mind.

"Rick?" The man turned to face her, his entire frame was slumped over in defeat.

"Rick, I haven't known you for very long but I know you have the weight of the world on your shoulders trying to lead these people and keep them safe," Rick looked away from Leah, unable to hold her gaze.

Leah stepped in front of him, she needed for him to look at her so her words would sink in, "Rick? You did the best you could. You didn't have any weapons that could take down two walkers while keeping Sophia safe."

"Carol's right, it is my fault. I shouldn't have left her," Rick sounded like he was on the verge of breaking down.

"No it's not. No one else responded as quickly as you did, no one else has to put others before themselves as often as you do. In that situation, I probably would have done the same thing. You made sure Sophia was safe first before you tried to take on those two assholes. Rick, it is admirable what you're doing. I don't know if anyone can do what you do as well as you do it. So I believe I'm speaking for the entire group when I say that if there's anything we can do to ease the weight you carry, we would be happy to help."

Rick gave a heavy sigh, "Thanks, Leah."

Leah took Rick's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, "You're a good man, Rick. Don't forget that."

"Go get some sleep," Rick dismissed her.

Leah walked toward where Daryl was cleaning his arrows. He had cleared out the bed of the truck Leah had hidden under and spread both their sleeping bags in the bed, their weapons and clothes sitting in the cab.

"Hey kiddo," Daryl looked up from the rag in his hands.

"Hey," Leah sat next to him on the tailgate, taking up an arrow for herself.

"Why did ya run off after that little girl?" What was it with Daryl and these random, deep questions? She wasn't mad at him or anything, but she thought he was the one that wanted to keep it light.

"I just… felt like I owed it to her. It's our job to look after each other," Leah looked at Daryl to size up his response.

"Yeah, I get ya. It sucks knowin' that she's out there when she could be here, safe with her mom."

"Daryl, you are such a sweetheart."

"Yeah, well you're the only one that thinks so," Daryl looked back down at his arrow sheepishly.

"Hey, don't doubt yourself. If you do, I'll kick your ass."

"I'll hold ya to that."

"I'm gonna go keep Carol company, I'll join you in a little while."

Leah finished polishing the arrow and set it down next to Daryl. She walked into the RV to find Carol sitting at the table, looking out the window towards the woods and crying.

"Hey, it's gonna be okay. Sophia is smart and tough. We'll find her tomorrow and she'll be fine."

"I hope so." Leah sighed and put her arm around Carol.

It wasn't long until both Leah and Carol fell asleep, the dull lamp above their heads being the only source of light in the RV.

Leah was woken up by her arm being shaken, she recoiled from the unwelcome touch. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes to see Daryl standing above her, "C'mon, let's get some shut eye in the truck."

Leah's neck cracked as she straightened into a standing position, following Daryl out of the RV and across the street to their makeshift camp.

They climbed into the bed of the truck and Daryl handed her a can of corn, "Sorry, there weren't any pears."

"That's okay, sweetie. Thank you."

"No problem."

They drifted into a contented silence, both eating their ration of food and water. They threw their cans into a plastic grocery bag when they were finished. Leah didn't think it mattered whether they littered or not, she guessed it was just out of force of habit.

Prince hopped into the truck, curling up between her and Daryl. All of them settling in for the night, Daryl and Prince snoring within minutes.

Leah stayed up and looked at the stars, thinking about Sophia and how she had let another person down. She pulled out her iPod and decided to play a song dedicated to Sophia and Carol.

_Oh I am what I am _

_I'll do what I want _

_But I can't hide_

_I won't go _

_I won't sleep _

_I can't breathe _

_Until you're resting here with me_

_I won't leave _

_I can't hide _

_I cannot be _

_Until you're resting here with me_

**A/N: Sorry this chapter wasn't more action packed but I have some special stuff planned for next chapter :) So the season premiere of The Walking Dead is on tonight [internal screaming]. I know I can't be the only one freaking out about it :) As always you guys are amazing and don't forget to follow/favorite/review my story!**

**Till next time my lovelies 3**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Hi all! Here's a nice, long chapter for you guys! I still plan on updating once a week, things are going to get exciting pretty soon (Yay!). I'm grateful to everyone who gave me positive feedback and words of encouragement on this last chapter (I love all of you guys!) Please continue to follow/favorite/review and happy reading!**

**(Just a little warning that there is some language in this chapter)**

Chapter 9 – Hey Brother

_September 2000_

"So, how often did you think about Lily this past week?"

"Hm?" Leah was only half paying attention to the woman sitting across from her, playing with a loose seam on the leather chair she was curled up in.

"How often did you think about her?" Leah continued to stare out the window, counting the number of cars that drove by beneath them. Thinking about the people on their way to work or out to lunch with friends, so blissfully unaware of how simple their lives really were.

"How often would you think about her?" Leah finally decided to make eye contact with the therapist. The sessions always started with the same routine questions. How was your day? How are you feeling? How often did you think about her? The woman continued to stare at Leah until she answered, "I think about her when I wake up in the morning and when I go to sleep at night, when I see her empty room across the hall. Her face stares at me from the pictures mounted on the wall, I see her in my parent's faces whenever they look at me." Leah was getting angry now. But maybe that's what the doctor wanted, to have her show emotion, so that she could scribble something about her on a pad.

"Why when you look at your parents?"

"Because I know they blame me," Leah stated flatly.

"How can you know that?" The doctor scribbled something incoherent on her notepad. Leah decided to feed the dog.

"How can they not? If I were in their position I probably would. Maybe not directly or publicly, but deep down I would. _I_ blame myself."

"Why?"

Leah could feel the guilt and anger mixing in her stomach as she spoke, "Because it was my job to protect her and I failed. It was the one job I was meant to do and I couldn't do it."

"Do you think Lily would blame you?" Sharon's even tone was pushing Leah more and more over the edge. She never seemed to have empathy when they were talking.

"I don't know. Maybe. I certainly wouldn't blame her."

"Would you feel better if you knew? If she did or didn't blame you?"

"If she didn't I would tell her she should. If she did, she could never make me feel as bad as I make myself feel every minute of every day," Leah had had enough and went back to staring out the window, it had started to rain. Not to her surprise, raining was a pastime in Florida.

"Leah? Leah, are you with me?" Everything Sharon was saying to Leah was going in one ear and out the other. The rain grew heavier and the clouds got darker. A sudden bolt of lightning exploded in Leah's view, flooding Leah's mind with unwanted memories.

The room suddenly felt cramped and Leah had to get out. She fled the office, the sounds of Sharon and her secretary growing smaller behind her. Leah ran down the stairs and out of the office building into the storm. She grabbed the keys in her pocket but immediately let go of them. There was no way she was driving, not now. She started walking, not towards home or to any place that would remind her of Lily, she just walked away from everything.

_Present Day_

Leah's sleep had been plagued with nightmares, but she supposed that was the norm now. She didn't want to think about what she had seen in them. She never wanted to see them again, but she was sure she would.

Leah sat up from her sleeping bag and looked around at the group, scattered among the abandoned cars on the interstate. Glenn was keeping watch, his baseball hat in its usual place on his head. Her eyes roamed to the man beside her. Leah took note of his dark hair sticking up in every direction, his strong arms and shoulders splayed out by his sides. She smirked as a snore escaped his lips, Daryl didn't sleep much, but when he did he was dead to the world. Leah supposed that wasn't an appropriate expression to use anymore.

She decided she should change into one of the pairs of jeans she found yesterday. She didn't feel like walking to the RV so she just shimmied the skinny jeans on underneath her sleeping bag, pulling on her favorite Ramones tank top as well. She shoved her gun back into her belt, reminding herself to find a holster soon. Leah noticed that it was slightly easier to move her shoulder today, it would probably be another day or two before she could use her bow again.

Leah noticed that a few people were starting to wake up and decided to get her and Daryl some breakfast. She woke Prince and fed him the last of his food. She crawled out from the back of the truck and made her way over to the RV and took two cans of food and a couple bottles of water back to Daryl.

"Morning, kiddo," Daryl rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he adjusted the collar on his shirt.

"Morning, sweetie. I bear with me the breakfast of champions. Green beans or corn?"

"Green beans," Daryl took the can and bottle from Leah. She took her seat by her two favorite men and ate her breakfast in silence.

"Do you think we're going to find her today?" Leah couldn't help but feel a little doubtful about finding Sophia. She sincerely hoped that they would but nobody could ignore the reality of the situation.

"I do," Daryl replied simply.

"How can you be so sure?" Leah looked Daryl in the eye, searching for the conviction in his words.

Daryl met her gaze with as much determination as she ever saw in a person, "Because she's tough. She survived Ed for this long." Leah knew Daryl had a point, Ed was a whole different kind of monster and Sophia had lived through him, she could survive a walker if she needed to.

Leah's attention was averted when she saw everybody gathering around an old Mustang. Leah grabbed her second gun and Daryl grabbed his crossbow, joining the rest of the group in the search for Sophia, Prince trotting after them.

Leah saw a whole kit of Melee weapons on the hood, assorted hatchets and knifes gleaming in the sunlight.

"Everybody takes a weapon," Rick stated. They all needed to be equipped to handle a walker without drawing attention to themselves.

"These aren't the kinds of weapons we need. What about the guns?"

"We've been over that. Daryl, Leah, Rick, and I are carrying. We can't have people popping off rounds every time a tree rustles." Leah was surprised to learn that she could keep her gun, although she figured she proved herself when Shane first asked them to demonstrate their skills. He even asked her back at the quarry if she had been trained. She said she hadn't, but she had had them for eight years and knew how to handle shotguns as well.

"It's not the trees I'm worried about." Andrea would not let up on her necessity to have her gun, she just sounded like a spoiled brat to everyone around her.

"Say somebody fires at the wrong moment, a herd happens to be passing by. Then it's game over for all of us. So you just need to get over it," as much as Leah hated it, Shane was right. And it was about time somebody shut Andrea up.

"The idea is to take the creek up about five miles. Turn around on the other side. Chances are she'll be by the creek, it's her only landmark."

Leah couldn't help but giggle at the look on Glenn's face as he picked up a… Leah didn't know what the hell it was, but it looked dangerous.

"Stay quiet, stay sharp. Keep some distance between you, but always within sight of each other," Rick instructed.

"Everybody assemble your packs."

"Dale, get moving on those repairs. We've gotta get this RV ready to move."

Leah picked up a bowie knife from the weapons pack and put it in the top of her boot. Prince gave her hand a little kiss and she rubbed his ears in response. She wondered if he proved useful yesterday to Daryl and Rick. She would find out soon enough.

Leah went behind the RV to pick up a rucksack and grab some supplies. She was stuffing a water bottle into the bag when she felt a hand on her ass. "Now you're just begging for another round with me."

She immediately whipped around, grabbing her gun from her waistband and shoving it down the front of Shane's pants.

"I didn't want to the first time, but you just took what you wanted like the douchebag you are," Leah put as much venom into her words as possible, getting into his face. Her finger gripping the trigger all the while. "If you do or even think about raping me or any other woman in this camp, so help me God I will shoot it the fuck off, Shane. I am not even close to kidding."

Shane tried to call her bluff, "Ya know you're sexy when you're angry."

Leah switched the safety off and shoved the weapon even further down Shane's pants, "You touch me again and I will make you sorry you ever fucked with me." She pulled the gun out from his pants and grabbed her bag before Shane had time to respond.

Leah walked back around to the other side of the RV, it didn't look like anyone had heard what just happened. For that, Leah was thankful.

"Andrea, I'm begging you. Don't put me in this position," it looked like Andrea and Dale were rehashing the argument from the previous night.

"I'm not going out there without my gun. I'll even say please."

"I'm doing this for you."

"No Dale, you're doing this for you. You need to stop. What do you think is gonna happen? That I'm going to stick it in my mouth and pull the trigger the moment you hand it to me?"

"I know you're angry at me. That much is clear. But if I hadn't done what I did, you'd be dead now." Leah went to stand next to Glenn and Daryl as the pair argued, letting the whole camp now just how unhinged Andrea was.

"Jenner gave us an option, I chose to stay."

"You chose suicide."

"So what's that to you? You barely know me." Leah knew that Andrea's words where hurting Dale deeply. The man cared for her like a daughter.

"I know that Amy's death devastated you."

"Keep her out of this. This is not about Amy, this is about us. And if I decided that I had nothing left to live for, who the hell are you to tell me otherwise? To force my hand like that."

"I saved your life."

"No Dale, I saved yours. You forced that on me. I didn't want your blood on my hands, and that is the only reason I left that building. What did you expect? That I would have an epiphany? Some life affirming catharsis?"

"Maybe just a little gratitude?"

"Gratitude? I wanted to die my way, not torn apart by drooling freaks. That was my choice. You took that away from me, Dale."

"But-"

"But you know better. All I wanted after my sister died was to get out of this endless, horrific nightmare we live every day. I wasn't hurting anyone else. You took my choice away, Dale. And you expect gratitude?"

"I don't know what to say," was the only response Dale could muster after that ball busting from Andrea.

"I'm not your little girl, I'm not your wife, and I'm sure as hell not your problem. That's all there is to say."

The group took a cue from Andrea and headed towards the woods, Leah stayed behind to give Dale a little encouragement, "She'll come around, Dale. Slowly but surely, she'll come around. I hope."

Dale put his hand to Leah's cheek in silent thanks and nodded his head, sending her on her way.

Leah jogged to catch up to Glenn and the others, Daryl, Rick, and Carol taking the lead.

…

Leah guessed they had been walking for a couple of miles, the heat weighing down on all of them despite the cover of the trees. Prince was sniffing every blade of grass they crossed, it didn't look like he had picked up on Sophia's scent yet. Then the whole party came to a stop when Daryl saw a single yellow tent in a clearing ahead. Rick motioned for all of them to get down, preparing for whatever could meet them.

"She could be in there," Shane thought out loud.

"There could be a whole bunch of things in there," Daryl countered.

They all started walking quietly towards the tent, hope bubbling inside of them at the thought of seeing Sophia again.

Rick motioned for them to keep a distance, Daryl being the first to investigate the tent.

Daryl shrugged, not seeing anything inside the tent that was dangerous. Rick called Carol forward, "Call out softly. If Sophia's in there, yours is the first voice she should hear."

"Sophia? Sweetie? Are you in there? Sophia, it's mommy. Sophia, we're all here, baby. It's mommy," Carol's voice was growing more anxious at the continued silence. Daryl slowly unzipped the tent with Rick and Shane backing him up. They all started coughing at the stench inside. Leah exchanged a glance with Glenn as it was confirmed that Sophia was nowhere to be found.

Daryl climbed inside the tent to further investigate, after a couple of moments Leah got anxious, "Daryl? Daryl?"

"Ain't her." Leah grabbed Carol's hand, her heart sinking a little at the disappointment.

"What's in there?"

"Some guy. Did what Jenner said, opted out. Ain't that what he called it?"

Leah's ears perked as she heard bells in the distance. The entire group started running in the direction of the sound, hope filling them once more that it could be Sophia.

The bells grew louder as the group ran further into the woods.

"What direction?"

"I think that way, I'm pretty sure."

"Damn it's hard to tell out here."

"If we hear them then maybe Sophia hears them too," Carol exclaimed, excitement evident on her face.

"Some is ringing those bells, signaling others."

"Other survivors maybe?" Leah suggested.

"Someone signaling that they found her."

"She could be ringing them herself," Rick interjected. Everyone started running faster at his suggestion. They were all desperate to see the little girl again.

They ran for about a mile and the bells had stopped. They were wandering for a couple of minutes when they came across a graveyard with a white building in the center. "That can't be it, got no steeple," it was always like Shane to bring up the negative. But Leah didn't exactly see any other churches nearby.

The bells rang out again and everyone started racing to the church, Leah falling into step next to Daryl and Glenn. Prince sprinting ahead of all of them.

They came around the building to a pair of red doors, Rick and Daryl pushing the doors open to the sanctuary. They all stepped inside to find three walkers sitting in the pews. Daryl handed Leah his crossbow. Leah didn't realize how heavy it was and immediately regretted grabbing it with her bad arm. The bow must have weighed twenty pounds.

Rick, Shane, and Daryl took out the three walkers quickly, all of them out of breath by the time they were done.

"Sophia!" Rick called out one more time for the little girl, desperate to right his wrong.

The bells went off again and everyone ran outside to find the source of the sound. They made it to the back of the building when Glenn opened a small box and tore out some wires.

"It's a timer. The thing's on a timer," Daryl sounded exasperated. This day was just full of let-downs for them.

"I'm gonna go back in for a bit." They all walked back in the church to rest.

Leah stood in the back of the room. She hadn't gone to church in years and after everything that had happened, any doubts that she had were multiplied. If there was a God, he wasn't paying any mind to anyone in this group.

She decided to take a seat in one of the pews and pulled out a bible, flipping to the passage about the shepherds and the angels. Her dad always showed her that passage every Christmas because of the speech Linus gave in Charlie Brown, it was his favorite part of the holiday special.

"Hey, kiddo. Brushing up on your Genesis?" Daryl took a seat next to Leah.

"It's more like Exodus these days," she pointed to the passage, "And that's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."

Daryl read over the passage, staring at the page absently, "I only ever saw that show once. I was at Merle's dealer's house and we were all shit faced and decided to watch TV. I think we watched every Christmas special that was on that night."

"Did you watch 'It's a Wonderful Life'?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Daryl laughed.

"Yeah, that movie is a tough one to get through. But it all pays off when you hear her say 'Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.' But you know what, that sounds like an okay Christmas to me. Hell, that's what I used to do. I would call my family and then head over to a friend's house and get drunk. We would watch the worst movie we could think of. You know, the kind you _had_ to be drunk to watch. Then we would all pass out and exchange presents the next morning, those of us that didn't have family around anyway." Leah started laughing with Daryl. They quickly stopped when they saw Carol kneel down in front of the crucifix. It was not a time to be laughing.

Lori and Carol started walking out of the church and Daryl and Leah followed suit. They all congregated underneath a tree to figure out what the next move was. None of them were ready to stop looking for the day, they were going to keep looking until dark.

"Ya'll are gonna follow the creekbed back, okay? Daryl, you're in charge. Me and Rick are gonna hang back and search this area for another hour or so just to be thorough."

"You're splitting us up? Are you sure?" Daryl questioned Shane.

"Yeah, we'll catch up to you."

"I wanna stay too. I'm her friend," Leah objected instantly. With everything that was happening with Sophia, she didn't want to chance something happening to Carl too. She thought of Carl as a little brother, but it wasn't her decision.

"Just be careful, okay?"

"I will," Carl reassured his mother. They said their goodbyes and Leah ruffled Carl's hair as he said pet Prince on the head.

"Here, take this. Remember how to use it?" Rick held out his Python for Lori to take with her.

"I'm not taking your gun and leaving you unarmed," Lori reasoned.

"Here, I got a spare. Take it," Daryl handed Lori a revolver.

Leah didn't miss the huge eye roll that Andrea just made, she was going to have to deal with the fact that she didn't know how to use her gun properly.

…

They went their separate ways and started heading back to the RV. Leah had been walking in the front with Daryl and Glenn for a half an hour when they stopped for a rest.

"So this is it, this is the whole plan?"

"I guess the plan is to whittle us down into smaller and smaller groups," Leah nudged Daryl, Rick was doing the best he could without everyone questioning him.

"Carrying knives and pointy sticks," Andrea would not let up on this, "I see you have a gun, you too Leah."

"I've had mine for eight years, sweetie," Leah put as much sarcasm into the nickname as possible. She held her gun out to Andrea, "If you can clean this and put it back together properly, I will let you carry it. No? Build a bridge and get over it." Leah knew that something had snapped inside Andrea the night Amy died and Leah didn't like it. Leah had been there before and knew how dangerous it was.

Lori joined the conversation, "Here, you want it? Take it. I'm sick of the looks you're giving me. All of you." Andrea took the gun with yet another eye roll.

"I can't believe you Andrea, you're giving her attitude when you've been giving us nothing but attitude all day? Carol's daughter is missing and all you can think about is a piece of metal?"

Lori stopped Leah from attacking Andrea any further, "Honey, I can't imagine what you're going through, but you have got to stop blaming Rick. It is in your face every time you look at him. When Sophia ran, he didn't hesitate did he? Not for a second, Leah didn't either. I don't know that any of us would have gone after her the way that he did, or make the hard decisions he has to make, or that anybody could have done it any differently. Anybody? You all look to him and then you blame him when he's not perfect. You think you can do this without him, go right ahead. Nobody is stopping you."

Andrea handed the gun back to Lori, "We should keep moving." Leah wanted to pat Lori on the back just then. They all continued on their trek back to camp, eager to get some rest.

Glenn walked up to Leah, "Cat fight."

"Shut up!" Leah punched him in the arm.

"Chinaman's right. That's the kind of shit guys dream about, except with less clothes and a little more hitting."

"You're both jerks, I don't know why I hang out with you," Leah giggled, she liked moments like this, when there wasn't an apocalypse, it was just friends joking around.

They were walking for another half an hour or so when they heard a loud noise echo through the forest.

"Was that a gunshot?" Lori asked.

"Maybe. It could be Dale back on the highway."

"No, it came from the where we left Rick," Lori's worry hung over all of them.

"Let's keep heading toward the RV, it might not even be them," it was Daryl's job to get everyone back to the highway safely.

Lori turned around reluctantly and they continued on their path.

…

They had been walking for another twenty minutes or so when Lori stopped again.

"Are you still worrying about it?"

"That was a gunshot."

"We all heard it," Leah gave Daryl a light punch, Lori was clearly worried and his comment wasn't helping.

"Why one? Why just one gunshot?"

"Maybe they took down a walker?" Daryl suggested.

"Please don't patronize me. You know Rick wouldn't risk a gunshot to take down one walker. Or Shane, they'd do it quietly."

"Lori, I'm sure they're fine. They've been watching each other's backs since they were kids, right?"

"Shouldn't they have caught up with us by now?"

"There's nothing we can do about it anyway. We can't run around these woods chasing echoes."

"So what do we do?" Lori questioned.

"Same as we've been. Beat the bush for Sophia and work our way back to the highway."

"I'm sure they'll hook up with us back at the RV," at least Andrea was trying to be helpful now. Lori glanced back at the woods one more time before joining Leah and Glenn. Leah rubbed Lori's arm in hopes of instilling some reassurance in the woman, "Everything is going to be fine." She was sure Lori's mind was racing through all of the worst-case scenarios she could think of. Lori gave Leah a gentle smile and pinched her chin like a mother does. Even though Lori was only a couple years older than Leah, she knew that Lori thought of her as a daughter.

"I'm sorry for what you're going through, I know how you feel," Andrea was speaking to Carol now.

"I suppose you do, thank you. The thought of her out here by herself. It's the not knowing that's killing me. I just keep hoping and praying that she doesn't wind up like Amy."

Leah cringed internally, that hit Andrea below the belt, "Oh god, that's the worst thing I've ever said."

"We're all hoping and praying with you. For what it's worth."

"I'll tell you what it's worth, not a damn thing. All this hoping and praying," Leah almost interrupted Daryl, that was uncalled for, "We're gonna locate that little girl and she's gonna be just fine. Am I the only one zen around here? Good lord."

Leah laughed out loud, she waited until Daryl was in whispering distance, "Like I said, you are such a sweetheart."

"Yeah, don't blow my cover," Daryl replied quickly.

"Should I start calling you Mr. Miagi now? Wax on, wax off." Daryl shoved Leah playfully, "Are we gonna start this again?" Leah shoved him a little bit harder and she could here everyone laughing behind them.

"You guys fight like an old married couple," Glenn commented.

"We just know how to press each other's buttons," Leah replied.

They fell into a contented silence for the next couple of miles, slowly following the creek back to the interstate.

"We'll lose the light before too long. I think we should call it."

"Lets' head back."

"We'll pick it up again tomorrow?"

"We'll find her tomorrow."

They all started walking in the opposite direction, heading back to camp.

…

"How much farther?"

"Not far, maybe a hundred yards as the crow flies," Leah knew that was a wide estimate.

"Too bad we're not crows." There was no doubt that they were all spent from the day's activities.

Everyone was too busy looking forward that they didn't realize that Andrea had fallen behind until they heard her scream in the distance.

"Andrea?!" They all started running towards Andrea's voice.

They could just see Andrea on the ground, fighting off a walker when a pretty brunette rode up on a horse and hit the walker in the head with a baseball bat.

"Lori? Lori Grimes?" They were all standing in shock as Andrea's savior called for Lori.

"I'm Lori."

"Rick sent me. You've gotta come now."

"What?"

"There's been an accident. Carl's been shot. He's still alive but you've gotta come now. Rick needs you! Just come!"

Lori started to take off her backpack, "Whoa whoa! We don't know this girl! You can't get on that horse!" Daryl tried to keep Lori from going but he was talking to deaf ears.

"Rick said you had others on the highway? By that big traffic snarl?"

Glenn was standing in awe, "Uh huh."

"Backtrack to Fairburn Road. Go down two miles, you'll see the mailbox. Name's Greene," with that the brunette took off with Lori and left the other's completely speechless.

Lori was out of sight now, "What the hell just happened?"

The walker had regained consciousness and started snarling at the group, "Shut up!" Daryl put the thing down once and for all.

They jogged back to the highway, they needed to get to the farm as soon as possible.

Dale was standing at the edge of the highway, "Carl's been shot!"

"Shot? What do you mean shot?"

"I don't know, Dale. All I know is that this chick rode out of nowhere like Zorro on a horse and took Lori."

"And you let her?"

"Climb down out of my ass, old man. Rick sent her, she knew Lori's name and Carl's."

"And I heard screams, was that you?"

"She got attacked by a walker, it was a close call."

"Too close," Leah added. If the girl hadn't have shown up, Andrea might have been bitten.

"We have to get to that farm. We need to make sure Carl is okay. Rick and Lori need us there."

"I won't do it. We can't just leave."

"Carol, our group is split. We're scattered and weak," Dale reasoned with the mother.

"What if she comes back and we're not here? It could happen."

"If Sophia found her way back and we were gone, that would be awful," Leah knew Carol and Andrea had a point. Nothing would scare her more if she thought mother abandoned her.

"Okay, we gotta plan for this. I say tomorrow morning is soon enough to pull up stakes. It'll give us a chance to rig a big sign, leave her some supplies. I hold here tonight and stay with the RV."

"If the RV's staying then so am I."

"I'm staying too, I'll gather as much supplies as possible," Leah had to stay for Sophia, there was no debating that.

"Thank you."

"I'm in."

"Well if you're all staying then-"

"No, Glenn you're going. You can take Carol's Cherokee."

"Me? Why is it always me?"

"We have to find this farm and reconnect with our people. Find out what's going on. But most important, you have to get T-Dogg there. This is not an option. That cut has gone from bad to worse. He has a very serious blood infection. Get to that farm and see if they have any antibiotics, because if not, T-Dogg will die, no joke."

Daryl walked over to his motorcycle, pulling out a large bag with several prescription bottles in it, "Keep your oily rags off my brother's motorcycle. Why'd you wait until now to say something? I've got my brother's stash. Crystal, X… don't need that. Got some kick ass pain killers. Doxycycline, not the generic stuff neither. That's the real deal. Merle got the Clap on occasion."

Leah forced that mental image out of her head before it was burned in her brain permanently, "Before you guys go, I'll try and rinse out the cut as much as possible. Putting chamois on it certainly hasn't helped it stay clean."

"Glenn, bring some of those pain killers," Leah walked over to T-Dogg and put her hand on his head. From what Dale described, it felt like his fever had gone down but he was still incredibly warm.

"Okay, take some of these and when you start to feel them working I'll try and clean out your cut and put some fresh bandages on it," T-Dogg just nodded in response and took both pills. Glenn and Leah double checked all of the nearby cars for any supplies they might have missed. They found some more pairs of pants for Lori and Andrea and some shirts for Carol. They found a few bottles of water and an unopened box of crackers. Leah found some spray paint that they could use to make the sign for Sophia. Leah also found a washcloth that would be perfect for T-Dogg.

Leah mixed some warm water and salt and soaked the washcloth in it. She put the cloth on the cut and let it draw some of the infection out. T-Dogg called out a half an hour later after the pain killers kicked in, "Leah?"

"I'm coming, honey." Leah grabbed a roll of paper towels, two bottles of water, and some electric tape, "Glenn, come help hold his arm down. T-Dogg, I'm really sorry but this is probably going to hurt like a bitch." Leah started pouring some water onto the paper towel and cleaned the cut as gently as possible. T-Dogg's arm twitched and he screamed out in pain, only forcing Glenn to tighten his grip. "I'm sorry, T-Dogg. I'm so sorry." Leah continued to wipe down the cut, getting a fair amount of the infection out, but his veins were still discolored.

"Okay, I think that's about as good as it's going to get," Leah put a clean paper towel over the cut and put some electrical tape at the edges of the bandage so nothing would get into it until they got to the farm.

Leah walked over to Glenn, who was packing the Cherokee, "Take Prince with you to the farm. I don't know how but he is always able to make Carl feel better and he should be with him. He may be able to make Rick and Lori feel better too."

"Got it. Be careful, okay?"

"I will. You too," Leah pulled Glenn in for a hug and gave Prince a kiss on the head. Leah couldn't help but feel her heart break when she saw Prince staring at her from the rear window. This would be her first night without Prince.

…

After Glenn and T-Dogg left for the farm, the rest of them scoured the cars for more supplies until about ten o'clock. Carol headed into the RV and Leah and Daryl decided to sleep in the RV since there was less protection outside tonight. Leah resumed the place she took next to Carol the night before and gave the poor woman a shoulder to cry on.

It was well past midnight and Carol was still weeping. Leah saw Daryl shift out of the corner of her eye and she looked at him with a knowing gaze, neither of them would get any sleep tonight. Daryl left the RV with Andrea and Leah overheard them say they would look for Sophia, Leah giving Carol's shoulder a light squeeze.

Carol and Leah continued to sit quietly until they headed up on the roof to see what was taking the pair so long to return.

"Can't sleep?"

"We're going to wait for them," Carol replied.

"No, I'll keep watch."

"Which way did they go?" Dale pointed towards the woods, all of their eyes fixed on that spot.

They sat in total silence for about an hour until Carol spoke up, "You don't need to worry. If something happens, he can protect her. You hear what I'm saying?"

"I'm sorry, all I heard was 'if something happens.'"

"Dale, I know Daryl better than anyone and he would never let something happen to her. Not on his watch."

"Can you keep watch?" Dale handed Carol his rifle.

"I don't know how to use that!"

"I got it, Dale," Leah took the rifle from Dale.

"If you see anything, call out. I won't be gone long." Dale climbed down from the RV and walked between the cars to where Daryl and Andrea left.

…

It wasn't long until Daryl and Andrea reappeared from the woods, sending a flood of relief through Leah. If Daryl didn't come back, she didn't know what she would do. She heard Carol crying from behind her and before she could say anything Carol climbed down and slammed the RV door.

"Dale. Andrea. Go get some sleep, Daryl and I will take watch until morning."

"You don't mind?" Dale asked Daryl.

"Nah, won't be sleeping anyhow."

"Okay, goodnight you two."

"Goodnight, Dale," Daryl and Leah replied in unison.

Daryl joined Leah on the RV roof, "Hey, kiddo. Quite a day, huh?"

Leah and Daryl sat with their backs against each other like they had the other night, "You could say that."

"I really thought we would find her," Daryl said, sounding disheartened.

"We will. It's like you said. We're gonna find her and she'll be just fine," Leah couldn't stand the idea of Daryl losing hope, he couldn't. None of them could.

They sat the rest of the night in silence, watching the sun rise. They built the sign for Sophia and made a U-turn on the interstate with the worst feeling in their stomachs. Leah knew they weren't leaving her, they would still search for her like crazy but it felt like they were leaving her behind in a way.

Leah gripped Daryl's torso as they drove further and further away from Sophia.

_Hey brother, there's an endless road to re-discover._

_Hey sister, know the water's sweet but blood is thicker._

_Oh, if the sky comes falling down for you,_

_There's nothing in this world I wouldn't do._

_Hey brother, do you still believe in one another?_

_Hey sister, do you still believe in love, I wonder?_

_Oh, if the sky comes falling down for you,_

_There's nothing in this world I wouldn't do._

_What if I'm far from home?_

_Oh, brother I will hear you call._

_What if I lose it all?_

_Oh, sister I will help you out!_

_Oh, if the sky comes falling down for you,_

_There's nothing in this world I wouldn't do._

**A/N: So we got to see a little bit of Leah's life before everything! Let me know what you guys think about having those flashbacks. What did you think about Leah standing up for herself? Also just a little insight into next chapter, but someone does find out about Shane and Leah (I won't say who!). Sorry there wasn't a whole bunch of Daryl/Leah interaction but things will be heating up for them in a few chapters (wink wink). Don't forget to follow/favorite/review! I am a sucker for feedback and it always makes my day when I hear from you!**

**Till next time my lovelies!**

**P.S.: The season finale had me die a little on the inside! (It's going to be a long six months)**


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